Alchemists of the Caribbean
by junodog
Summary: The Elric brothers, along with Colonel Mustang and Lieutenants Havoc and Hawkeye, get caught in a storm and end up in the Caribbean. Crossover with PotC. mangabased.
1. Chapter 1

This right here is the first fanfic I ever wrote. It's going to be of all three of the PotC movies, but since the third one isn't out yet…

The Elric brothers walked down the beach, looking for a sign of civilization. They were lost, completely lost. A few days before, the boat they were on had capsized in a storm. Luckily they had gotten hold of a decently large chunk of wood and transmuted it into a boat, seconds before the ship sunk. They weren't sure what had happened to Colonel Mustang, who was on the same ship with Lieutenants Hawkeye and Havoc. Ed was worried about the two Lieutenants, but claimed not to care at all about Mustang. Al wasn't convinced of his brother's indifference, he knew his brother was worried.

Ed tripped over a rock and fell to the ground.

"Damn, this sucks. Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know, brother, but we should keep going. If we find somebody, we can ask where we are."

"Fine, whatever."

They kept walking. After a while, Al started to carry his brother, since it was obvious that Ed wouldn't be able to go much farther. Soon they came upon some cliffs. At the top of the cliffs was a building of some sort.

"Brother, look!"

"Hmm?" From Al's back, Ed looked up at the top of the cliffs. "Oh, that's nice." He got down from his brother's back and dusted himself off. After a moment, a flash of movement caught his attention. Somebody had fallen off the cliff, and was plummeting towards the water. Ed looked closer, and with a start realized that this person would land directly on one of the jutting rocks. In an instant, he clapped his hands together and put one hand on the cliff. The rock instantly disappeared, and the person landed safely in the water. "Phew," he said, and watched to see what would happen to the person. When he saw somebody else swimming towards the person, he breathed a sigh of relief. The person was okay.

"I wonder what that was all about," Ed said to his brother.

"Mm-hmm."

Their thoughts on the matter were soon interrupted by a cry from behind them. "Oy, you there! What are you doing?"

Ed and Al turned around to see a ring of people surrounding them. They were all in uniform, but it wasn't the uniforms the two were used to seeing. They were red, and rather silly-looking, thought Ed. Along with the uniforms, each of the men had a gun, with a bayonet on the end, and all of them were pointed at the brothers. Al stepped forward.

"Um, sorry, we're not from around here. You see, we were in this ship, and it capsized, and we got into a boat, and somehow we ended up here."

"Oh, are you castaways?" One of them asked.

"Um, yeah, I guess so."

"What are your names?"

As the two introduced themselves, Ed made it very clear that he was the older brother, not wanting anybody to think otherwise.

"All right, come with us."

---------------

The brothers were sitting in a room of what they could only guess was a headquarters for a military. After a while, somebody came into the room and announced that Commodore Norrington had arrived. Shortly after, he entered the room. He was wearing one of the curly white wigs worn by many of the military people in the area. Ed snorted.

"And what, may I ask, is so funny, young man?" Norrington asked.

"What? Oh, nothing." Ed was still trying not to laugh, but the man ignored him.

"So, you two are survivors of that storm in the Atlantic?"

"What are you talking about?" Said Al, not knowing what the Atlantic was.

"A few days ago, there was a huge storm out in the Atlantic Ocean. So far, we haven't heard of any ships making it through, much less lifeboats."

"Well, I guess we just got lucky."

"I suppose so. Speaking of which, it seems that you were watching while Ms. Swan fell into the sea. Did it not cross either of your minds to help her?"

"We di-" Ed interrupted his brother, sensing that this man didn't know anything about alchemy. "We would have helped, sir, but neither of us can swim."

"Neither of you know how to swim?"

"Well, it's not so much not knowing how, it's more we can't."

"What do you mean?"

Ed was silent for a moment.

"Well?"

"S-something happened when we were young, and the results of that messed up our bodies very badly."

At this, the Commodore seemed to soften. "Is that why your older brother wears armor?" At this, Al laughed, while Ed began to become very angry.

"Who are you calling so short that he looks like the younger of the two of us?!?!?!?!!?!!!" Al had to act fast to prevent his brother from flattening the Commodore who had unwittingly insulted Ed so badly.

"Brother, he didn't mean it like that!"

After Ed calmed down enough to be let go, he gave Norrington a death glare. "Yes, that is why my YOUNGER brother wears the armor."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Hmph."

"Well, where were you headed?"

The two brothers looked at each other. "Well, the thing is, we don't really know."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we were heading on a mission with Colonel Mustang," Al began.

"And that stupid bastard didn't even tell us what we were doing, he just dragged us along, and when we asked Lieut. Hawkeye…" Ed continued.

"That's when the storm hit, and we lost track of each other."

"So you two are military officials? Of which country?"

"Well, only my brother works for the military, I just accompany him since our home no longer exists…"

"And why is that?"

"We burned it down, so that we wouldn't turn back on the path we have chosen."

At this point, the Commodore seemed to realize that the boys had had a difficult past, and asked one final question. "So what will you do now, since your comrades may not have survived?"

"I don't know."

"I assume you don't have any money."

"Yeah, I wasn't able to go back to our cabin before the boat sank."

"In that case, I will find a place for you to stay. Feel free to look around town, just return here in the evening."

"All right." They headed out the door, but before they exited, Ed looked back. "Um, about Ms. Swan, is she okay?"

"Yes, she has recovered, and the man who saved her turned out to be a pirate, so he has been arrested."

"Oh, really? That's interesting…" Ed trailed off and left, closing the door behind him.

-------------

As the two explored the town, Ed noticed a little shop where there were a lot of people standing around some old man. They noticed another, younger man standing inside, a strange look on his face. Curious about what was going on, Ed made his way through the crowd to the younger man.

"What's going on?" It took a moment for the man to see Ed, since he was up on a step and Ed barely came up to his chest.

"Oh, you mean you haven't heard? That pirate came and hid in here, and I fought with him."

"So why is everybody talking to that old man over there?"

"Because he got the credit for stopping him."

"Oh, I know how that is…" Ed trailed off, remembering how many times credit had gone to Mustang for something that he did. "So how'd that guy manage to get credit?"

"Because he knocked that pirate out after I fought with him for a long time."

"So the only reason that guy could knock him out was because you fought with him?"

"Yes."

"Man, that sucks. But hey, at least you helped, even if not everybody knows it."

The man nodded, and then took a closer look at the brothers, the younger of the two now starting to get stares from people around them. "Where are you from? Your accent is very hard to place."

"Us? Oh, we're from Amestris."

"Amestris?"

"Yeah, the country of Amestris, across the sea? Haven't you heard of it?"

"No, never. So how did you end up in Port Royal?"

"By accident, we were in a storm, you see…"

"Oh, that storm in the Atlantic?"

"All right, what are you talking about? I've never heard of the Atlantic, and I've looked at a lot of maps of the world!"

"Are you sure? Because if you're from this side of the Atlantic, you should have heard of it."

"Well, no, I haven't."

"How old are you, then?"

At this, Ed began to lose it. Al, wanting to avoid a scene, placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and said, "I'm 14, and my brother is 15." In a whisper, he added, "and please don't act too surprised, brother is very sensitive about his size."

"All right. So what are you doing now?"

"Well, we're just looking around for the moment, and then we don't really have any plans yet."

"If you want, I can show you around. I've finished what needs to be done for today, and Mr. Brown probably won't notice that I'm gone."

"That sounds good," Al said. "Oh, by the way, I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my brother Edward."

"It's nice to meet you. My name is Will Turner."


	2. Chapter 2

All right, this part isn't quite as good as I'd like it to be in some spots, but I'm not really in the mood to go back and rewrite it, since I wrote this during the summer…

After a day of wandering around Port Royal, Ed and Al returned to the fort. Ed was exhausted, and Al, being a suit of armor, wasn't, so they ended up looking like Al was the older of the two, watching over Ed, who was once again mistaken for a young child. Luckily nobody bothered them too much, and Ed was too tired to react, so they made it to where they were supposed to meet the Commodore.

Another man was with them, an older man, who seemed to look better with the curly wig than the Commodore. He introduced himself as Governor Swan.

"So it was your daughter who fell into the ocean today?" Ed asked.

"Yes, it was."

"I'm glad she's all right, I was really worried if anybody would help her, since we can't swim."

"Well, yes, it is good that she received aid, although I wish it had been somebody other than that man…"

"Come on, you two, I'll show you where you can stay tonight," the commodore intervened.

Just as Ed fell asleep for the night, he was awakened by the sound of a cannon. He fell out of his bed and cursed. Al helped him up, and ran outside to see what was going on.

Ed got dressed quickly, also wanting to see what was going on, and went outside. He was staying in a pretty secluded area, and whatever it was hadn't reached him yet. He went down the road a ways, where he ran into Al.

"What's going on?"

"I'm pretty sure it's pirates."

"Oh, great. Just what we need. Let's go help."

"All right."

As they came into the town, they saw pirates overwhelming the people. Ed looked around, and as he noticed that nobody was paying attention to him, he transmuted his arm into a blade and went into the fray. His height came as an advantage, since the pirates assumed he was a child and didn't put much effort into attacking him. He fought back-to-back with his brother, and eventually Ed realized that their attacks weren't having much of an effect. In desperation, he stabbed the nearest pirate. The pirate looked at him, and swung at him, clearly not affected by the attack at all. Stunned, Ed stood there for a moment, which gave his enemy an advantage. Ed was knocked out from behind and left lying on the streets. Al, busy fighting other people, didn't notice that his brother was on the ground until he tripped backwards over him. He lay on the ground, and a pirate ran a sword through the gap between his head and body. While the sword was in there, Al grabbed it and snapped it in half. The pirate was surprised by this and backed up as Al got up, his head falling off in the process. He recovered, however, and the fight continued.

After a while, the pirates left the port. Al brought his brother back to the place where they were staying, and went to find somebody he knew. Most people were busy doing their own thing, and nobody noticed that Al's helmet had come off. Once he found Norrington, he realized his mistake, and ran off to find his head, leaving the Commodore bewildered at the sight of a headless suit of armor. After finding it, he wandered around and he realized he was lost. Hoping to find somebody to give him directions, he went into a nearby building. There were dead guards at the bottom of the stairway, and he looked around. It was an empty prison.

Al turned around to go back when he heard a noise behind him. He looked back and noticed a man in one of the cells. "Who are you?" the man asked.

Al decided to take a chance and told the man his name. "I'm Alphonse Elric. Who are you? Are you the pirate that saved that girl today, then threatened her?"

"I wouldn't say _threatened_, I would say that I saved her life, so she saved mine by acting as a temporary hostage."

"But you're in prison anyway."

"Only a minor setback. Say, would you mind letting me out?"

"Well, you don't seem like a bad person, but…"

"Al!" Ed yelled, appearing at the stairs behind him.

"Brother!"

"What are you doing down here?"

"I got lost, but brother…"

"Well, come on, that old guy wants to see us."

"Okay…"

The man in the cell said "Don't worry about me little boy, I'll just stay here and be hanged."

At this, Ed turned around and looked at the man. "Don't – call – me – little!" With that, he punched the man and left. Al, wanting to do something for the man, picked up a bone and threw it into the cell. "Sorry about him, he's like that a lot. Maybe you can use this to pick the lock. Oh, what's your name?"

"I'm Sparrow, Captain Jack Sparrow."

---------------

"Why were you talking to that guy?" Ed inquired of his brother.

"Oh, I guess it's because he seemed nice, that's all…"

"Seemed nice? Al, the guy was in prison!"

"So? He had to use that girl to get away from them, they were gonna kill him!"

"He's a pirate, Al, and besides, they caught him anyways."

"But still…"

"Look, just forget about it. Come on, we're almost there."

As they arrived, they saw Will arguing with Norrington. They approached as Will stalked away. "What's wrong with him?" Ed asked.

"He's upset that we're not going after the pirates," Governor Swan replied.

"Who would want to go after those freaks? I mean, they're-" Ed trailed off when he saw the looks on the faces around him. "What's wrong?"

"They've taken my daughter," the Gov. said.

"Really? That's terrible! No wonder he wanted to go after them…" Al said.

"Why aren't you going after the ship?" Ed asked.

"It would be very difficult to find it, as we do not know where it's headed."

"If you did, would you go?"

"Perhaps, it really depends on the circumstances."

"What-"

"You say that you work with the military of your country, then you should understand, shouldn't you?"

"That's stupid. If somebody you know is hurt, and you know who's responsible, then shouldn't you do something about it?" With that, Ed stalked off without even seeing why he had been summoned in the first place. Al debated going after him for a moment, then decided to stay.

"So what is it you wanted us for?"

"We've received news that three people have been found at a port fairly close by, and their descriptions match those of your comrades."

"Really?"

"Yes, and we have business at that port, so it would be best if you and your brother came along."

"All right, thank you very much, I'll go find brother and tell him."

As he left, he heard the Commodore talking to Gov. Swan.

"That's impossible, are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm positive."

"But how…"

"I don't know, but I'm going to see what those two are hiding."

--------------

Ed arrived at the blacksmith shop he had been to the day before, looking for Will. When he arrived, he saw Will walking away from it. He shouted and caught up to him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to save Elizabeth."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to ask that pirate for help."

"I'll go with you."

"Why?"

"Because those people are idiots! And besides, didn't you notice? There's something strange about them, I stabbed one and it didn't die…"

"I did notice something like that, but let's concentrate on finding a way to save Elizabeth first."

Ed waited in the stairs as Will talked to Sparrow. It wouldn't do his pride much good to be seen asking such a man for help. He would wait, and appear at the last moment. Just as he thought they were ready, though, Al found him and dragged him over to one of the docks.

"What are you doing, Al?"

"Come on, brother, they're going to take us to where the Colonel and the Lieutenants are!"

"I don't care about that! Lemme go!"

"No! We have to make sure they're okay!"

After some more pointless arguing, Ed allowed himself to be brought to a small ship. He saw the Commodore, and didn't bother to say anything. After a while, he got an idea, and claiming he had forgotten something, ran off to find Will and Jack.

He found them near the lifeboats, and completely ignoring the pirate, went to talk to Will.

"So do you have a plan?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." The man said. "Oh and by the way, what's your name?"

"Edward. Edward Elric. That was my younger brother you met earlier, by the way."

"_Younger_ brother?" This comment earned the man another punch in the face.

"Who is this boy?" The man asked Will.

"He ended up here by accident, and he's going to help us."

"Really?" Looking at Ed, he thought about it for a moment, and said, "Well, it's nice to have help, even if it's a small-" Ed punched him again.

"What's with that arm?"

"It's made a little special. Now what do you plan on doing?"

"You see that ship over there?"

"Yeah, that's the one I was going to be on with my brother to find some people we know, why?"

"We're going to use it."

"Well, that works out great, since we can probably get on it real easy."

"What about the people you were going to find?"

"Well, I don't really want to look into the face of that pompous Colonel, as he finds a way to blame this all on me and make some sarcastic remarks…"

"Oh, good, so it all works out."

Ed returned to the dock and told Al that what he was looking for was actually in his pocket. Ignoring his brother's comments about his forgetfulness, and acting as curiously as he could, he asked if he and his brother could take a tour of the ship.

"Certainly," was the answer, and Ed took his brother onboard, walking as slowly as he could, pausing for a long time on the deck, then taking his sweet time as he looked at every nook and cranny of the space below. After a while, the ship moved, and they were heading out to sea.

Al panicked, but Ed calmed him down, saying that he wanted to get used to the ship's motion before going back to the deck. After a while, he heard gunshots, and the two went up to find that Will and Jack had succeeded.

---------------

"So your dad left you, huh?" Ed was talking to Will, while Al was sitting nearby and Jack was… ummmm… yeah… doing stuff.

"When I was young. He wrote letters and sent gifts, and that's how I knew to look out here."

"Why did you want to find him?"

"Well, after my mother died, I suppose I just wanted to meet him, since he is my father and all."

"Why did he leave in the first place?"

"Because of his job. He was a merchant sailor."

At this Jack made a noise. Will looked over at him, and turned back to the conversation with Ed. "What about your parents?"

"Well, it's about the same, our father left us without mentioning where he was going, and eventually the stress of running a household without his support took a toll on her and she died."

"Did you ever see your father again?"

"No, and I don't want to. She was always waiting for him, and he didn't write or send gifts or anything, he just made her wait. It was too much for her to handle. In fact, we don't even know if he's alive or dead right now, and I couldn't care less."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah, and if it hadn't been for him, we wouldn't have ended up like this…" Ed muttered.

"Like what?" Jack asked.

Ed stood very still for a moment, spouting nonsense for a while. "W-what are you talking about?" he finally asked.

"You just said, if it hadn't been for your father, you wouldn't have ended up like that, and I want to know what is so terrible about being a midget and a suit of armor."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIPSQUEAK SO SMALL HE CAN'T BE SEEN EVEN WITH A STUPID-LOOKING TELESCOPE?!?!?!?!?"

Jack put away the telescope he was looking through and ignored Ed for a while. After a few minutes, he pulled out a sword and came towards Ed. "Do you want to fight me?"

"Yeah, I think I do." Ed clapped his hands together and created his usual weapon on his arm, startling both Jack and Will, then attacked. They fought for a few minutes, and then Jack accidentally knocked Ed overboard, causing Al to panic.

"What did you do that for?!" he screamed, rounding on Jack.

"What, I'll send a rope down in a minute,"

"HE CAN'T SWIM YOU IDIOT!"

"What?"

"I said he can't swim! His arm and leg are made of metal, he's probably sinking down to the bottom right now!"

At this, Jack dove in and retrieved Ed. It took a while, but they finally managed to get him back to the ship. Once he was sure Ed would be fine, Will looked at Al.

"What did you mean, his arm and leg are made of metal?"

Regretting what he had just revealed, Al looked down at his unconscious brother.

"He lost his arm and leg four years ago, and had to get automail to replace them."

"What exactly is automail?"

"It's artificial limbs that connect to your nerves and allow you to move normally."

"How does that work?"

Al took off his brother's coat as they spoke. He picked up his brother's right arm and pointed to some wires showing. "These wires connect to the nerves that are supposed to give signals to the arm and hand. They carry the signals and the workings in here allow those signals to be carried out." Seeing the blank looks on their faces, Al decided to put it another way. "It's from the future."

"Ah, so you have access to this kind of technology in the future?"

"Well, what year is it right now?"

"It's-"

At that moment, Ed woke up with a start. He looked around, saw Jack, and decided to continue the fight. "You stupid jerk, I'll get you!" His attempts were foiled by Will and Al, who forced him down again.

"Brother, You should rest, you nearly drowned."

"Yeah, and it's his fault!" Ed pointed his blade at Jack.

"Brother, just give it up, you really scared me."

Ed looked up at his brother's face. "Sorry, Al. I'll be more careful next time."

After a while, when he was sure he wouldn't be tackled by his brother, he went over to Jack. "How far is it to wherever we're going?"

"We'll be there by nightfall."

"And where exactly are we going?"

"To an island called Tortuga. We need a bigger crew in order to follow the Pearl."

"The Pearl?"

"Yes, that's the name of the ship we're after."

"How do you know all this?"

"I'm familiar with that ship."

"How so?"

"Look, do you want to know every detail of my life, or do you want to help get us to where we're going?"

"Okay, I get it, I'll find out some other time. I have another question, though."

"What's that?"

"What's with you?"

"Pardon?"

"When Will mentioned what his dad does for a living, you made a weird noise, as if you had met him. And also, I was listening at the prison. It seems like you know his dad from somewhere."

By this time, Will was listening as well. "Yes, I noticed that too. Why is that?"

"Hey, metal-arm."

"Fullmetal."

"What?"

"My title is Fullmetal. If you're not going to use my real name, you could at least use that instead of metal-arm, since my leg is metal too."

"All right, then, Fullmetal, why don't you go over there and –insert nautical terms here- for a while?"

"Fine." Ed stalked away, glaring at Jack so much that he caused himself to trip and fall down the stairs.

"I did know your father."

-Insert conversation between Will and Jack from movie here-

and now for an author's note: HOT DAMN.


	3. Chapter 3

And here it is, the long-awaited part three of Alchemists of the Caribbean, and I'd just like to say, before we get too far into it, that if you see any plot holes, then just ignore them, because I wrote this in the summer, and I'm far too lazy to go back and change things any time soon, because the possible plot holes in this story haven't seemed to have been noticed by people who have read this story before.

Oh, and this is a pretty slow chapter, too, or at least I think so. The action picks up in the next chapter. D

-------------

Jack was the one to spot the island. He looked for the rest of his crew, but Ed was asleep. After several unsuccessful attempts to awaken the strange boy, he gave up and decided to leave him on the ship. Not wanting to leave him alone, he decided to ask the other two who wanted to go ashore. Al wanted to stay with his brother, so Will and Jack went to find a crew.

On the shores of Tortuga, Jack noticed three people who looked decidedly out-of-place, in the same way the Elric brothers did. He decided to go over and introduce himself and see if they wanted to be part of his crew. None of them did, however, and Jack decided to bring up the names of Ed and Al. At this, they looked at him suspiciously. One of them, a man with black hair and a definite air of smugness, replied. "How do you know the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"Oh, is he an alchemist? I didn't know. Well, I didn't really mean to take him with me, he just decided that for himself."

"Really? Well, it is something Fullmetal would do without thinking."

Another of the three, a woman with blonde hair, joined in. "He may also have been looking for us, and a ship would be the fastest way to find somebody around here."

"So, what'll it be?"

They looked at one another, and then looked up. The black-haired one agreed. "Good, I'll keep looking. Why don't the four of you go back to the ship?"

As he walked away, Jack realized the huge chance he had just missed. He could have gotten something from those people, or at least the brothers, but then he remembered that they were all castaways, so he forgot about it and continued looking for other possible crewmembers.

---------------

Roy Mustang, Liza Hawkeye, and Jean Havoc followed the young man to a boat in the dock. After a silent boat trip to the ship, which was a decent distance away from the harbor, Will led them to where Ed was sleeping, then headed back to shore. Al looked at the door when they entered, and with some relief greeted the three.

"I'm glad you're all okay. So, is this where you ended up?"

"Yes, we've been here for a few days. What happened to you?" Hawkeye asked.

After stories were exchanged, and Al explained the nature of their mission, Roy decided to ask about their captain. "There's something strange about the way he acts, is there a story behind that?"

"How should I know? I only met him yesterday."

"Yesterday? So where you ended up isn't very far off, is it?"

"No, it isn't."

About this time, Jack returned to the ship with Will, looking pleased with himself. Roy looked at him but before he could say anything, Jack simply said, "We'll have a crew tomorrow," and left for the Captain's cabin. Since there wasn't anything else to do, everybody except for Al went to bed. Al, having nothing else to do, went back up and looked out at the ocean. He hadn't spent much time around oceans, and this was a nice place for him. After a while, Jack came out and stood next to him.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Al looked at him, and sighed. It would be too difficult to try to explain about his current condition, and he didn't really want to talk about his past. He decided to shrug it off and shoot the same question back.

"I'll sleep later, after you answer my question."

"What question?"

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I can't sleep."

"Why not?"

"I just can't. I haven't slept since my brother lost his arm and leg."

Jack looked out to the sea. "How is it that he lost his limbs?"

Al abruptly looked towards a part of the ship. "Is it supposed to be doing that?" he asked, pointing towards a rope that seemed to be flailing wildly. Jack went over to the rope, and tried in vain to fix the problem. Al watched him for a while, and when he wasn't asked for help, he went back down and sat by his brother.

Ed was awake when Al went down, and when he saw his little brother, he gestured to the others. "So I guess this is where they ended up?"

"Yes, and more crewmembers will come tomorrow."

"That's nice. I'm going back to sleep."

"All right."

------dash----

Ed woke up to the sounds of sailing (whatever those may be) and came up to see they were already on their way. He looked around and saw that he was alone. He went to the deck and noticed a lot of people he didn't recognize. As he walked over to his brother, he also noticed something that he could have sworn was a trick of his mind. Jack noticed his presence and went over to him.

"This is the crew I found. Since you have neither enough experience nor the ability to swim, I thought it would be best if you didn't have to do anything. Plus it would be laughable if I had such a young child trying to do work meant for men."

Ed tried to punch Jack, but missed, so he just gave up, and decided to make it seem like the comment hadn't fazed him. After a while, he succeeded in kicking the $&#$ out of Sparrow, and walked away, mentioning that something seemed to be in bad shape. He walked over to where a bunch of men were looking at something, and saw that one of the most important ropes had frayed.

"You want me to fix this?" He asked, figuring that nobody would freak out if he used alchemy.

"How are you going to do that, might I ask?" One of the men asked. Ed grinned and said "Alchemy."

"Alchemy? You mean that black magic used by wizards from long ago?"

"It's not magic, it's a science, and it's very useful."

"How is it a science?"

"Do you ever purposely set sail when there's a huge storm in the harbor?"

"No, that's madness, it would be very difficult to make it through without losing lives."

"See, just as sailing a ship has its limits, so does Alchemy. You are limited by your knowledge, and the materials on hand as well, so while I could fix this rope, I couldn't make a new rope out of thin air."

"So, let's see this Alchemy at work, then."

"Okay." Ed clapped his hands together, then placed his hand on the rope, which was fixed immediately.

"Is this okay?" Ed said, enjoying the look of awe on most of the men's faces.

"I-it's great, I guess…"

About this time, Ed heard a voice that made him cringe. "Showing off, eh, Fullmetal?" Ed looked over at the Colonel, and decided to flat-out ignore him. He saw Hawkeye at his side, and decided to talk to her instead. After a while of Ed completely ignoring Roy, Roy got bored and went off to mingle with the crew. After a while, some clouds began to build up, and Jack sent the brothers below deck. Roy joined them after a while, and Ed finally acknowledged his presence by asking about the mission.

"Well, we were supposed to meet somebody else from the military, but that didn't really work out, did it?"

"Yeah, well what are we supposed to do now?"

"Do you think I'd know that?"

"Well, you are the one in charge of this whole mission, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I didn't expect to end up here."

"Where is here, by the way?"

"You don't know?"

"No, do you?"

"No, but I have a theory."

"What's your theory?"

"That this is all a dream that we ended up in another, not as advanced world and are going on a voyage to save some girl we don't even know."

"If it's a dream, why are we all here together?"

"How should I know? Do you really think that we just magically ended up in another world?"

"I have no clue, I was just saying."

"At the moment, I think we should simply concentrate on getting back."

"Maybe that psycho captain will help us find a way back."

"You want to ask a pirate for help?"

"What, he's already helped us find each other, so why not?"

"Al said that you were going to be looking for us anyway, when your ship was taken over by that man."

"So? The result was the same, wasn't it? Besides, now we don't have to be around that stuck-up Commodore with the stupid hair."

"Who?"

"Oh, some guy who has an ego problem and stupid hair, who is in charge of ships and junk, and I'm pretty sure he loves that girl we're after."

"Fullmetal, if you realized that this is a different world, why did you use Alchemy in front of those people?"

"Hmmm? Oh, Alchemy does actually exist in this world, but it was branded as black magic and hasn't been heard of for a long time."

"So now everybody thinks that you're a master of black magic, and how does that help us?"

"Oh, come on, the people we're after can't possibly be any better."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I tried to kill one of them, but whatever I did had no effect."

"Maybe you just weren't trying hard enough?"

"No, I got him pretty good, right in the chest, but he didn't react at all, just stood there looking irritated or something." At this point Ed was starting to turn green.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm doing just fine, how about you?"

"What do you mean? I've got more experience with sailing than you do."

"Then why are you so pale?"

"I'm not…" While they were arguing, the ship took a big lurch, and they both ran out of the room in opposite directions. Al could tell they were having a hard time, and was grateful for the fact that he couldn't feel anything. He also wondered how Hawkeye and Havoc were doing. His question was soon answered by the two coming down, Havoc leaning on Hawkeye. It seemed that Al and Lieut. Hawkeye were the only ones who weren't having any problems, so they ended up having to take care of everybody else until the storm was over, and when Mr. Gibbs came down, he found it interesting that the two least affected by the weather were the youngest of the bunch and the woman.

----------------

The next morning, Ed went up to where Will was standing, talking to Mr. Gibbs. He chatted with them for a while, about sailing and all that, and after a while, noticed one of the crewmembers, a midget. Ed stared at the midget for a while, and when he realized that he wasn't imagining it, he began to act very strangely, or at least in the eyes of the crew, who didn't know much about Ed and his short complex.

"THERE'S SOMEBODY SHORTER THAN ME IN THE WORLD!!! THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" His elation at realizing that there was somebody that was way shorter than even him only increased as he realized that he still had a few years to grow. It ended, however, when Havoc mentioned to Ed that they were in a different world, and that he was still short by their world's standards. "Why the hell did you have to tell me?"

Havoc just shrugged and lit a cigarette, ignoring the very depressed Ed now sitting on the deck.

--------------

Poor Ed. His life is so hard. XD


	4. Chapter 4

When they got closer, Ed, having fixed everything that needed fixing, became very bored. This boredom was alleviated when Al suggested they spar for a bit, but considering the size of the ship, they decided to wait, making Ed very bored again. He eventually decided to bother Jack for a while.

Jack, who had started to like the boy, put up with Ed's stupid questions, ("Why do you love your hat so much?" "How do you know where they're going?" "What's with those stupid things hanging from your chin?" "Have you ever killed a puppy?" "Why do you hate me so much?" "Why do you hate puppies so much?" "Did you know that the Colonel is useless in a fight if his precious gloves get wet?" "You should really stay away from Lieut. Hawkeye, she can get mean…") and even let Ed steer the ship. This cost them a few hours as Ed led them way off course, but as this gave them more time to prepare, nobody really minded. Ed did some fine-tuning on his arm and leg, and they finally arrived.

Ed and Al went with Jack and Will to the island. Ed was slightly worried, since they were sneaking up on a bunch of cursed, Jack-hating pirates, as he had found out. Although he was happy to have been proven right in front of Roy, he wished that the enemy were a little easier to deal with.

They snuck into the cavern where the pirates were. Since they were all paying attention to their captain and Elizabeth, nobody noticed the four people sneaking behind them, not even Al.

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm not entirely sure, we need to get the girl away, oh wait, he just smacked her good."

"Stupid bastard," Ed and Will said at the same time. "I have an idea," Ed said. He explained what he had in mind, and although Jack didn't agree, he had no choice to but agree, since there was a menacing suit of armor right next to him. Will agreed that the idea was good, and they set out performing their tasks.

---------------

Al looked around the corner, not quite believing what his brother wanted him to do. After a moment, Ed pushed him out into the open, so he had no choice but to act. Looking as menacing as he could, he stood there, and pointed a finger at Captain Barbosa. "Do you honestly think that nobody would notice what you're up to?" Everybody was staring at him, and finally Barbosa spoke. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Ed, who was amused by his brother trying to explain himself, found himself pushed into view by Jack. At the sight of the armor and the midget with a braid, nobody moved. Ed looked around, looked at his brother, and looked back at the menacing crowd of pirates. With a resigned sigh, he transmuted a blade on his arm, and spoke. "We're alchemists, and as such, we have an obligation to use our abilities for good, and I think you know where this is headed."

Barbosa laughed. "Do you really want to fight against us? Don't you know why we're here?"

"Some stupid curse that you brought upon yourselves? Yeah, I know about that, and I also have no sympathy for you."

"Who said I wanted your sympathy? And besides, how could you know how much we're suffering?"

Ed let out a short laugh. "Suffering? What, because you were stupid and greedy? Look, it may not look like it, but we've been through a lot these past few years, and not because we're stupid greedy pirates, just because we were too young and desperate to understand that what we were doing was a mistake!"

"And what was it that you did that was such a big mistake?" Ed looked down at the ground. He hadn't wanted to go into detail about his past. After a while, he looked up and noticed that they were surrounded. As soon as he was sure everything else had been worked out, he turned his arm back to normal. He pulled off his coat, revealing his arm, and said, "We tried to go against the flow of nature, and failed miserably. Not much else to it."

--------------

Jack and Will carried Elizabeth to a small boat they had taken. They rowed back to the ship, dropped Elizabeth off, and returned to help the Elric brothers. Upon returning, they realized that there wasn't much they could do. The boys were surrounded, and if he revealed his presence, Jack would most likely be killed. No, now wasn't the time to do something, he thought. It didn't seem like the boys would be killed, and there was still something he needed to do… He would wait. He would watch for an opening, and then use his advantages.

Will agreed that it would be useless to do anything at the moment, but worried about the reactions of the others onboard the _Interceptor_. They would probably be angry about leaving the boys behind, especially since it seemed they were important to the military of Amestris, wherever that was. He mentioned this to Jack as they headed back to the ship. "Yes, I've thought of that. I'll explain the situation to them, and if they have a problem, they can deal with it themselves. The first thing we need to do is to get away from here while they're distracted. Oh, by the way, did you retrieve the medallion?"

"Yes, I did."

"Good. We'll need that later." Jack noticed the spacey look on Will's face. "Is something wrong?"

"I didn't see him."

"Oh, your father? He may have been left to guard the ship, or maybe he left the ship before they were all cursed."

"No, because I remember getting this medallion from him, as a gift."

"I'm sure you'll find him eventually."

They arrived onboard facing a not-so-happy Roy. "Where are they?" he asked. Will disappeared as Jack explained the situation. "So you just left them there?"

"For the moment. You see, I told them that if they were caught, that they should mention that they know the person who can lift the curse. So, as long as they listened to me, they'll be fine."

Roy was getting angrier by the minute. He was about to beat the $ out of Jack when Liza intervened. "We should leave now. They'll probably realize that the girl's missing soon, so we should get some distance between them and us."

"Right you are, missy. –Insert more ship dialogue here- and don't worry about them. They'll be fine," he said to Roy one last time.

---------------

Ed was starting to worry. It didn't seem like anybody was coming to help them. Just when it seemed like they were going to be killed by pirates, Al spoke up. "You have the wrong person," he said.

"What?"

"I said, Elizabeth isn't the person you're looking for. She used the name Turner to trick you. She didn't realize it was a bad name to choose."

"So, you're saying we were deceived?"

"Yes, and we know who it is you need to find."

"Really, now? Why don't you tell us?"

"Well-"

Barbosa pointed his gun at Ed. "Tell me, or the boy dies."

Al stepped in front of his brother.

"Oh, so you're willing to die for that runt?" Barbosa fired his gun, and the bullet ricocheted into one of the nearby pirates.

"Please stop, mister," Al said. He had maneuvered so that both he and a wall protected his brother. Barbosa ignored him, and pulled out a sword. He thrust the sword into Al, and was a little surprised when it had no effect on the giant armor, and more surprised when he pulled out the sword to find it clean.

"Now do you get it? This is what happens when you defy God," Ed remarked from behind Al.

Barbosa thought it over for a moment before realizing that he was dealing with two very stubborn boys. "Fine. I won't kill either of you. Instead, I'll give you a choice. Stay here, or come with us and help us find the one we need."

"What about her?" Ed asked, pointing in the direction where Elizabeth was supposed to be.

"We won't kill her either."

"Fine." Ed and Al willingly walked to one of the boats, waiting for when Barbosa would realize he had been tricked and not wanting to be near him. Some shouts of anger confirmed what they were waiting for, and Ed stiffened. His brother would be fine, since he couldn't feel pain, but he, on the other hand, was in a precarious situation. He didn't want to die at the hands of pirates, but he didn't see any way to escape. "Damn, if I could swim, this would be a lot easier," he muttered under his breath.

Fortunately, Barbosa wasn't in the mood to kill Ed, because he ignored the brothers completely as they rowed to the Black Pearl. The sky was clear, and it was night, so for the first time the brothers saw the full extent of the curse. It wouldn't have bothered Ed too much, since he had seen worse things in his life, but after a while, he remembered something that he had been trying to forget, ever since that day when their lives had been destroyed. It shook him up, and the pirates, thinking that his reaction was solely based on their appearances, laughed.

On the ship, Ed was too out of it to realize what was going on, and soon found himself alone in a small room. He assumed Al was somewhere else on the ship, and realized that as long as he kept them away from his blood seal, he would be safe. He went to sleep.

-------------

Roy was mad. He hadn't wanted to end up working on a pirate ship, much less trying to find a way to get Fullmetal and his brother out of the clutches of a bunch of murderous cursed pirates. He should have made them stay aboard the ship. Now he had to deal with a lot more, and they still hadn't completed the mission. He didn't even know if they would be able to get back to his world to complete it. Yeah, he had a lot to be angry about. And having to deal with the British government didn't help.

Sure enough, they were there, coming towards them. Jack had seen them first, and tried to change course of their ship, but they ended up getting the ship stuck near a small island. Now British soldiers surrounded them, and Roy had to admit, they did have stupid-looking wigs. They also had ridiculous uniforms, which made Roy grateful for not living in this world. One of them, wearing a blue uniform as opposed to the red uniforms of everybody else, walked up to Roy and introduced himself as Commodore Norrington.

"Oh, so you're the one who found the Elric brothers?"

"Indeed I am. Speaking of which, where are they?"

"They stayed behind in order to get Ms. Swan to safety, which puts me in a very bad situation, since they are under my command. That being the case, I would like to request the aid of the British Royal Navy to find them."

The Commodore was quiet for a while, and nodded his head. "I believe that can be arranged, but it will have to wait until we sort out the matter of Jack Sparrow."

"Captain," Jack said from where he was standing. Before anybody else could say a word, Roy intervened again.

"It would be best to leave him be for now, since we'll most likely need his help with catching those pirates."

Norrington gave Roy a look of disdain. "Are you saying we should use the aid of a pirate to catch pirates?"

Jack spoke again. "Think about it, mate. The Black Pearl. The last real pirate threat in the Caribbean. How can you pass that up?"

"By remembering that I serve others, Mr. Sparrow, not only myself."

"So you're just going to let them continue what they've been doing? How is that serving anybody else?" Roy interjected.

"What?"

"If they continue to roam free, they'll kill more innocent people, destroy more families, and terrorize everybody in this area! And what good will that do? Also, what if people find out that you could have stopped them? That you had a chance to stop them, but you didn't? You're destroying your reputation by not doing anything."

Norrington was silent for a while. When he finally spoke up, it was with a humbled tone of voice. "And what about this group of pirates? How can I be sure that they won't try anything funny?"

"I'll make sure of that myself."

"And why should I trust you?"

"I am a Colonel in the military of Amestris. I have more authority than you."

"Very well. I will leave some of my men here, to help, and I shall take Ms. Swan back home."

-------------

Elizabeth didn't want to go back. She wanted to stay with Will for a while, and meet the two boys who had helped to save her. So, the next morning, just before the two ships went their separate ways, and while nobody was paying any attention to her, she jumped off the ship and swam towards the Interceptor. Will spotted her, and helped her aboard, not saying anything. He took her below deck, and finally spoke.

They spoke of many things, including the strange appearance of the people from "Amestris" and the medallion. After a while, they agreed on one thing: they couldn't hide her from everybody else. "Stay here for a moment, I'll be right back," Will said, and went off to find Jack. Elizabeth waited silently for Will, who returned shortly. "He didn't seem to care. What about your father?"

"I left a note in my room."

------------

Ed woke up with a start. He sat up, and noticed a pirate standing in the door of his room. The pirate gestured for Ed to follow him, and Ed obliged, not wanting to do anything that could get him killed.

It was daytime, and Ed blinked at the sun when he came above deck. He was led to Barbosa's cabin and pushed inside. Barbosa looked up from his desk (I don't know if he has a desk in the movie, but he definitely does here) and gestured for Ed to sit down.

"Why don't you tell me where we're going?"

"Oh, going right to the point, eh?" Ed remarked, a little sarcastically. "What took you so long?"

"You should be careful what you say, you are on a pirate ship, you know."

"No, really? I hadn't quite figured that one out."

"Well?"

"What?"

"Who are we after?"

"Some guy, on some ship, he was really close to you last night."

"What?"

"Oh, have I been asleep for more than one night? How do you think Ms. Swan managed to disappear so easily?"

"So, you came to distract us."

"No, we came to help Ms. Swan, we didn't plan on being captured."

"I'd really like to kill you right now."

"Well, if you do then my brother won't ever tell you who you're after, and you can't exactly torture him, since he can't feel pain, or anything for that matter."

"But we can torture _you_."

Ed stood up, and walked to the window. "As in physical pain? Didn't I say it before, I've been through a lot in my life."

"Will you just tell me where this person is?"

"There's a ship called the Interceptor, it's the ship I came on, and that would be your best bet."

"Where's it headed?"

"It's obvious if you think about it."

"What's this person look like?"

Ed shrugged, and looked through the window again. "You'll recognize him when you see him."

"I see."

Ed stretched and sat back down. "What now? Are we going to be stuck on this damn ship forever, or are you going to let us go?"

"I'll decide after we retrieve the medallion and the child of William Turner."

"Gee, how thoughtful."

Barbosa stood up. He walked over to where Ed was sitting, and for a moment, Ed was sure he was going to be in a lot of pain. Nothing happened, though. Instead, Barbosa grabbed Ed's right arm and looked at it closely.

"How exactly does this work?"

"I don't know. My friend's the automail mechanic, not me," Ed replied as he pulled his arm away.

"And what did you mean by 'defying nature?"

"Exactly what I said. –Insert Izumi's flow of nature speech here– We went against that flow, and Al lost his body, and I lost my arm and leg. It's not that hard to understand."

"You're not going into detail, are you?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because, I just don't feel like it."

"And why don't you feel like it?"

"Because it brings back bad memories."

"Memories of what?"

"Of the day when our lives were ruined."

"But how was your life ruined?"

"Why do you care so much? Don't you want to kill me?"

Barbosa was silent. Eventually he pulled Ed outside. "You see these men?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"They were all cursed because of a bad decision on the captain's part. You know what we did wrong, and I'd like to know what you did wrong."

Ed pulled his arm away. "Ask Al, if you want to know so badly."

"You don't want to say it?"

"Not really." Ed stared out to sea for a while. Barbosa watched him for a while, and then went back to doing sailing-type things. He left Ed standing on the deck.


	5. Chapter 5

I begin this with the shortest chapter in the universe.

---------

"She's gone?"

"Yes, I checked in her cabin, and she wasn't there. I also searched the ship, but found no trace of her."

"She must have gone over to the _Interceptor_. Turn the ship around."

"Yes sir."

-----------------

Al was daydreaming. He had nobody to talk to, and was tired of wondering about what would happen, so he was letting his mind wander. After a while, he realized somebody was nearby. He looked up, and saw Barbosa standing outside of his cell. Al immediately became worried about Ed.

"I would like to know something."

"What?" Al asked, still nervous about his brother.

"How did you come to have those bodies?"

"Brother didn't tell you?"

"No, he didn't seem to want to."

"Well-" The ship lurched suddenly, throwing Al off balance. His head rolled off, and slipped through a hole in the bars. "Ah, my head!"

Barbosa was more interested in the reason for the ship stopping, and ran off, leaving Al alone in the brig without a head. Curious about the sudden stop, he used alchemy to open the door, retrieved his head, and went up to the deck. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to him; everybody was looking ahead of them or to the side. Al came over to the side and saw his brother being dragged up the rigging on the side of the ship. A quick look to the front revealed a ship. Close by was an island.

Al realized what had probably happened; his brother had seen the ship, somehow fallen overboard, sunk to the bottom of the sea (not being very deep, since they were near land) and transmuted a sandbar so that he wouldn't drown. The ship must have gotten stuck on the sandbar, hence the sudden stop. Al was curious about why his brother had been worth saving, these pirates didn't seem to want either of them alive.

Ed had regained consciousness, and was struggling to get away. Al, realizing that his brother probably had a good reason for trying to get away, went to help him. After a while, they both managed to get to the small sandbar, and transmuted a quick bridge to the island. After running to the island, Ed destroyed the bridge, hoping it would slow down the pirates, but there wasn't much luck.

The other ship had arrived at this time, and Mustang, Hawkeye and Havoc ran towards the Elric brothers. As they arrived, pirates also arrived on the beach.

"What's going on, Fullmetal?"

"What do you think? They want to invite us to a freaking tea party! Why don't you put on a nice dress?!"

"No need to be so negative," Roy said, and snapped his fingers; the foremost pirates went up in flames, but once the flames stopped burning, they continued to come. "What the…"

"Do you think that'll stop them? They're IMMORTAL! They won't die!" Ed shouted.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

"Well, if you had listened to me earlier-"

"I hate to interrupt, but we should focus on the issue at hand," Hawkeye said. She and Havoc had taken their guns out, and were pointing at the nearest pirates.

"What good is shooting them going to do?!?" Ed screamed in exasperation.

"We're not trying to kill them, we're trying to get you back, so come on!"

"Wait! What about their ship?"

"Can't you transmute another sandbar or something?"

"Oh, right."

Before climbing aboard the _Interceptor_, Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the beach; a mountain of sand spouted around the Black Pearl, and then the water surrounding it froze. Ed froze the water up to where the ship was, and then used alchemy to push the ship out to sea, once he and his brother had boarded.

Havoc was the last to get on; he had to swim a decent part of the way, due to Ed's transmuting. As they sailed away, a good distance from the enemy, Ed climbed as low as he could and froze all the water between them and the Pearl, as well as the water on the other sides of the ship.

"That should keep them busy for a while," Ed said, sitting down on the deck, rather pleased with himself. Al stood next to his brother. Eventually they went below deck, and found Will talking with a woman.

"You're all right!" Will exclaimed, getting up.

"Yeah, for the most part. Who's this?" Ed said sleepily.

"This is Elizabeth Swan," Will said. Elizabeth got up, and addressed the two boys. "Thank you for all you did. I would still be at the hands of those pirates if not for you."

"Plus you'd be dead," Ed said.

"What?"

"Oh, come on, do you really think you just happened to not land on one of those rocks? We saw you falling, and I used alchemy to change the shape of the rocks so you would land in the water."

Elizabeth stared at Ed for a moment.

"What? It's true! Right, Al?"

"Yeah, brother did save you."

More blank stares.

"Why don't you believe me? Is it because I'm so SHORT? Is that why you don't think I'm capable of doing something like that?"

Still more blank stares.

"Stop thinking that! I still have a few years! I'll grow more!"

"Brother, I don't think that's what this is about."

Ed looked at his brother. "What is it about then?"

"Look behind you." Ed turned around and was rather startled by what he saw. Several pirates from the Black Pearl, including eyeball-man, were standing behind him.

"Oh, crud. What do you want?"

"What do you think? Nobody else knows we're here. We're just going to wait here until the Black Pearl catches up."

"Somebody will notice," Ed pointed out.

"Not if you keep quiet about it, and that silence may help you to live longer," eyeball-man replied, pulling a gun on Ed. Ed quietly surrendered, and sat down. Will seemed to have recovered from the shock, and sat down as well. Al merely stood there, absolutely silent.

"They'll notice that we're not coming up."

"I know that."

"I mean, if none of us are ever above deck at the same time, it's bound to be noticed eventually."

"Lucky for us we're not going that far."

Ed was desperately trying to find a way to outwit the pirates. After finding nothing to say, he went to bed, one of the pirates still watching his every move.

---------------

Jack knew something was up. He knew from the way they were acting, and the fact that one of them always stayed below deck, never Al. He also knew from the not-too-subtle hints that Ed was writing on papers and giving him, like "We're being held hostage" and "Please help mister crazy." There was also the fact that Al was talking a lot to his friends from "Amestris." Something was up, but he still didn't know what, and they were still a few days away from Port Royal.

After a while, Ed realized that Jack didn't really understand his subtle hints. When he was absolutely sure, he told Jack exactly what was going on.

"Oh, so that's it, eh?"

"Yeah. And I've been trying to drop hints that Al isn't as immortal as they think, but it hasn't been working."

"Well, why don't you continue with that, and try to find out what'll happen once the Pearl catches up."

"What about you?"

"I'll keep doing what I've been doing, and decide once you figure out their plans."

"Gee, thanks." Ed went over to where Al was talking to the others, and started to poke Roy.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you poking me?"

"I dunno."

"Will you please stop?"

"No."

Ed was happy. He could blame any weird behavior on the events of the past few days, and was taking advantage of it.

"Fullmetal!"

"What?"

"Stop poking me!"

"No."

"Why don't you go bug somebody else?"

Ed stopped poking the Colonel. "You don't like me, do you?" He started to cry.

Roy was overwhelmed by his performance and just ignored him. Ed started poking him again. After a while, he became bored and went below deck.

"What's with him?" Roy asked, rubbing his arm.

Havoc shrugged. "Maybe it's because of what's been going on the past few days. I mean, he is still a kid."

"True, but it seems like he's just using that as an excuse."

"Well then, just ignore him."

----------------

Lieut. Hawkeye was keeping watch that evening. The ship was empty; everybody was either asleep or playing cards or something along those lines. She looked out to sea: nothing. She looked around, and noticed something moving. The moon was out, so she had enough light to see it clearly. What she saw caught her off-guard for a moment. Something small was crawling around the ship. It seemed to be a monkey, but it was- a skeleton. A monkey skeleton was wandering around the deck.

She stared at the monkey, hardly daring to believe it, but before she could do anything, it disappeared. She looked around the deck for it, holding her gun in her hands, but didn't see it.

--------------

Ed couldn't sleep. He knew that one of the pirates was inches away from his head, and he could tell that said pirate hadn't bathed in years. Sure, not many people bathed around here, but at least they were normal humans, and at least made an attempt to not smell horrible. After a while, it became too much for him, and he decided to go sleep by Roy. It went against everything he believed in, but he had to get away from the smell, or if the pirate followed him, he could at least make Roy suffer too. He got up and, ignoring the pirate, moved over towards the other end of the cabin, and laid on the floor next to Roy's bunk.

Roy was awake, and watched Ed as he did the unthinkable. He stared at Ed's sleeping form for a minute, and then rolled over. As he did so, he saw a flash of movement. He assumed it was another one of the crew, not really believing that one of the cursed pirates would allow themselves to be seen.

The next morning, Roy had completely forgotten about Ed. He woke up, and rolled out of bed, tripping over Ed in the process. "OW!" Ed cried, waking up rather abruptly. "What the hell was that for?"

"What do you mean? I was just getting up, minding my own business, when here I am on the floor because of you! What were you doing on the floor anyway?"

Ed became a little quieter. "It's none of your damn business, Colonel," he muttered as he left the room. Everybody else in the cabin just stared.

"You know, he really is acting strangely," Havoc remarked. He was obviously trying not to laugh.

"You think? I'm going to find out what's wrong with him," Roy replied. He went above deck, heard Ed talking to Liza, and thought, "What's wrong with him now?"

"No, way, you're sure?" Ed asked.

"Yes."

"Jeez, I forgot about that monkey. I wonder what it's doing…"

"What monkey, Fullmetal?"

Liza told Roy about the incident with the monkey. Roy was caught off guard, then remembered the previous night's happenings. "I saw somebody moving last night, I assumed it was one of the crew, but now that I think about it, it seems like they're planning something."

"NO. I never would have guessed," Ed said, a look of mock surprise on his face.

Roy was about to say something very nasty to his pint-size charge, but Jack came over before he could say anything. "It seems we're short two people."

"What? Who?" Ed asked.

"That would be William Turner, and also your younger brother, it seems."

"What? Al's missing?"

"Well, nobody's seen him since last night, so yes."

"Are you kidding me? Why would they take Al?"

"I'm not sure, but one of the lifeboats is missing as well."

"Oh, great."

"Wait, I didn't hear a struggle or anything last night, maybe they went off on their own."

"Yeah, that could be it."

"Well, we can't be sure. The medallion is also missing,"

Ed was not happy about the situation. His brother was missing, and nobody seemed to know what to do. After a while, he went back below deck to see if any of the pirates were still around. He wasn't surprised to see that none remained.

---------------

Barbosa waited for his crew to return. He had given orders to find the medallion, the son of William Turner, and the armor boy and his brother. Something about those two was bothering him, and he wanted to know more about them. Soon he spotted a lifeboat rowing towards them.

As it drew closer, he realized that the crewmen had failed to retrieve one of the young alchemists. That really irked him.


	6. Chapter 6

Finally got around to updating this… here ya go…

Ed sat on the rail of the ship. He was so upset he completely forgot that he could easily fall off and drown. Everything seemed to be going wrong. He didn't want to go on the mission in the first place, but Roy had blackmailed him. Then that storm came all of a sudden, and had sent them into this world, where Ed and Al seemed to be getting into more trouble than usual, and now he had been separated from his brother. He tried to think of a solution, but he wasn't having much luck.

After a while, Roy pushed him, causing him to almost fall overboard.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You should pay attention to what's going on around you, Fullmetal."

"You don't have to try and kill me to get that point across!"

"Oh, was it that terrifying? I didn't realize you were so afraid of water."

"Oh, yeah, like I'm the only one."

"What?"

"Everybody knows you're USELESS whenever your gloves get wet! At least my alchemy isn't dependent on the weather!"

"It's not dependent on the weather! If I use a lighter, it'll be the same effect!"

"Yeah, but the only person who always has a lighter or matches is Lieut. Havoc, so does that mean you're dependent on him being around?"

"I could buy a lighter if I wanted to!"

"Well, why don't you?"

"I can't exactly buy one right now, we're in the middle of nowhere!"

"I meant when we get back."

"How do you even know if we'll get back?"

"That's not the point!"

"What, don't you care about getting back?"

"Yes, I do, but I want to find Al first!"

"That's what we're doing!"

"Why are you yelling? I can hear you just fine."

"You're changing the subject!"

"You should really stop yelling, everybody's staring at you," Ed remarked, walking away, leaving Roy feeling rather aggravated.

----------------

Despite himself, Ed grinned. He had the best chance to get back at Roy for dragging him into this. He went below deck, in the hopes of being able to do something to something of the Colonel's. Havoc was down there, forcing Ed to wait to sabotage Roy's bed. Instead, he went over to his bed and didn't pay attention to Havoc until he started talking.

"You know, you should stop giving him a hard time."

"What?" Ed asked, not really paying attention.

"He's just as worried as you are. It's not like he _wanted_ to end up here."

"None of us did."

"That's my point. This is just as hard for us as it is for you."

Ed was silent for a while. "I get your point. I'll lay off for a while."

Havoc smiled and sat down. "You still don't know about the mission, do you?"

"No."

"There was a rumor about a Philosopher's Stone being created in that country over the sea, and since the Colonel was supposed to go there as backup for somebody, he figured he might as well take you along."

"Then why did he blackmail me?"

"I guess he didn't want to admit to helping you."

"Of course he wouldn't. Then everybody would think he's going crazy."

Havoc made a noise, then walked off, leaving Ed to think about what he had said. He didn't have much time, because after a minute Elizabeth came into the cabin. "They need you on the deck."

"Oh, right." Ed walked out of the cabin, and noticed that Elizabeth was looking at him. "What?"

"Did you really save me? I mean, when I fell into the sea?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"No problem, although if I had known that it would have led to this much trouble, I wouldn't have done a thing."

Elizabeth gave him a strange look, then walked with him up to the deck.

-----------------

Ed arrived on deck before Elizabeth, and before anybody noticed him, he motioned for her to stay down below. He went over to where Roy was talking to Commodore Norrington, looking as pathetic as he possibly could, in case they were talking about his brother.

They were.

"So how is it that you only managed to keep one of them safe?"

"Because we had assumed that Alphonse would be able to take care of himself if his brother was being protected."

Ed arrived, acting sleepy and worried. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. You should go rest, Fullmetal. You seem to need it."

"Fullmetal?"

"That's his title within the military."

"And how exactly did he receive that title, may I ask?"

"I don't know, I'm not the one who gave it to him."

"But you should know the reasoning behind it, right?"

"As a matter of fact-"

"Why are you arguing about this? My brother's gone, isn't that a little more important than a name?"

Ed's acting was rewarded by a look of gratitude from Roy and a look of pity from Norrington. "Yes, back to the matter at hand, is there anybody else missing?"

"Everybody who's here is on the deck," Roy replied.

"So Mr. Turner and Ms. Swan are missing as well?"

"What?" Ed asked, trying to sound surprised, but also trying not to laugh at the fact that Elizabeth was "missing." The end result was a very high-pitched girly voice that made everybody look at him. He turned red, and walked away, hoping nobody would call him back. He went as far away as he could from Norrington, which happened to be where Jack was as well.

"Shouldn't you be over there?" Ed asked.

"They'd just arrest me and kill me, so I don't see any reason to scurry over there. What about you?"

"Oh, they think I'm an unstable kid right now. Didn't you hear me squeal?"

"No. Why exactly-"

"I was trying to be serious but it didn't work."

"Ah."

"So, what, are we just going to sit around now?"

"I suppose so. At least until they get through all their mindless rambling."

Ed sighed. Having been with the military for about three years, he understood just how long things could take. After a while, he decided to put on another act, one that would only be noticed if anybody bothered to look over at him.

He pulled up his left pant leg, and sat with his automail partially revealed. He assumed it would be okay, since although having it be made of steel was unusual for this world, it was his leg, not his arm, and he wouldn't have to worry about obnoxious questions.

Roy picked up on the hint, and pointed towards Ed. "You wanted to know about his title? In our country, that's what lost legs are replaced with. Metal limbs that allow almost the same amount of movement as normal legs. Ed lost his leg in the same accident that forced Al to wear that armor. Do you think you're doing either of them any good by allowing them to stay separated like this? Or to bother them about their pasts?"

Norrington looked over at Ed, who was acting a little strangely, and made a decision very quickly. They would go after the Black Pearl, on one condition.

---------------

Al sat very quietly next to Will. He hadn't wanted to leave his brother alone, but he didn't have a choice. It was either that, or watch Will be killed by the pirates. He was glad his brother had moved in the middle of the night. The pirates didn't want to get too close to Roy, most likely because of his flame alchemy, so they left Ed alone.

Will had been unconscious throughout most of the ordeal, and had woken up in the cell with Al talking to Barbosa. Al was stubborn as ever, and only let on about some details of his past when Will's wellbeing was threatened. They couldn't kill him, but they could make him feel pain. Al thought it would be better to play it safe, and had revealed something about alchemy, and about them failing a transmutation, resulting in the loss of their bodies. Barbosa had seemed satisfied with this information, and left them alone.

Will had finally caught on to why they needed him. It took him a moment to get over the fact that he wouldn't be seeing his father, and after that, he was silent. Al was used to silence, he had spent every night in silence since that failed transmutation.

After a couple of days, the ship stopped. Al was left on board as they took Will to that cave where they had first been caught. Once he was sure nobody would be paying any attention to him, he used alchemy to get out of the cell. He also transmuted something that would look like him, in case somebody came down to check. He wandered the ship for a while, taking care to avoid the two pirates left to guard the ship.

After a while, he noticed two ships coming toward the Pearl. He tried to catch the attention of somebody on board. Roy noticed him, and sent Lt. Hawkeye over to help.

--------------

Ed was ready to fight. He was determined for this all to be over, and he wanted to teach that bastard pirate a lesson he would never forget. He was discussing strategy with Jack when Roy got his attention.

"What is it?"

"Come with me for a minute."

Ed followed the Colonel, who was heading towards the Commodore's ship. Halfway there, Roy stopped.

"I'm sorry."

"What? For what?" Ed was confused.

"Look, this was the only way I could get them to help us, and besides, you can always use alchemy…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll see."

Ed soon found out what the Colonel was talking about. As they approached the Commodore and his group of men, Ed noticed that many of the men were well muscled, or big, he couldn't tell which with the poofy uniforms. Roy stood behind Ed, who still didn't quite understand what was going on, and spoke to Norrington.

"He's here."

"Good."

Ed looked back at Roy, but he was gone. Ed was alone, and noticed that all the big men were surrounding him. Ed wasn't going to use alchemy, but the fact that he was surrounded by a bunch of huge guys didn't make him feel good about not using it.

Finally, he asked Norrington what was going on.

"Due to the nature of the circumstances, we have decided that it is best for you to stay here, with protection."

"Excuse me?"

"You will stay on my ship until the situation is under control, do I make myself clear?"

"What the hell is this? Do you even know what you're getting into?"

"Yes, I do, and Colonel Mustang and I have agreed that it's in your best interests to stay here, with a guard, until the threat on your life is gone." At that, Norrington motioned to his men, who immediately took hold of Ed. Ed, who didn't want to stay behind, struggled against their grips, but it was too much, at least without alchemy. He continued to struggle, however, until he was thrown into a cabin below deck.

He banged on the door for a while, and after a bit it opened. He tried to get through, but was blocked by more of the soldiers, who pushed him back. Norrington came into the room, along with a couple of men who stood there menacingly.

"What the hell do you want?" Ed asked.

"You dropped this," Norrington replied, throwing Ed his silver watch. "Sit down, I want to talk to you."

Ed stood there, looking blankly at the Commodore.

"I said, sit down."

Ed sat down after another moment. The Commodore sat next to him.

"You move very naturally with that leg."

"Yeah, my best friend made it for me. She's really good."

"She?"

"Yeah, Winry Rockbell. She was our best friend growing up, and her parents were doctors. She actually comes from a long line of doctors, and they also make artificial limbs for people."

"You mean legs?"

"Yeah, and arms. They're very high-quality."

"How is that possible?"

Ed was very quiet for a moment. "W-well, I'm not really sure, I just know that they understand the way the body works, and do a very good imitation with metal, and it's very painful to get it installed, since it's literally connecting to your body-"

"So you have it, but you don't know?"

"No, all I know is that I spent a year getting to the point where I could move freely."

"A year?"

"Yeah, and I rushed it. It normally takes three years for it to work right."

"Three years? How were you able to do it in one?"

"Like I said, I rushed it. I pushed myself so hard that I was vomiting blood."

"Why would you do that?"

"There's something that I needed to do for my brother."

"What was that?"

"It's hard to say. But the reason I joined the military was so I could find a way to do it."

"And, did you?"

"Not yet."

"What exactly happened to cause this?"

Ed looked at the soldiers in the room. "Tell them to leave."

"Fine."

Once they were gone, Ed started talking about alchemy, and how they thought they could use it to revive their mother. He talked about being so determined that they had spent a month on an uninhabited island in order to learn.

"We were stupid. What we did was forbidden, and we didn't even know why, but now we do. Human transmutation doesn't work."

"But how did you end up losing your leg?"

"It was a passage fee."

"Passage fee?"

"Whenever somebody attempts human transmutation, a passage fee is required."

"To bring back the person?"

"No, to gain true knowledge. It's impossible to bring someone who's dead back to life."

"And this true knowledge, what is it exactly?"

Ed had the feeling that this man didn't believe what he was saying. He stood up, clapped his hands together, and placed them on the floor. He created a small wooden horse. "It allows you to transmute without a transmutation circle."

--------------

At this point, Norrington didn't know what to think. This had to be a dream. Alchemy was just a myth, a legend. It wasn't possible. And yet, here he was, being proven wrong by a little boy with a metal leg.

Ed was waiting for a reaction. He waited, and when Norrington didn't move at all, Ed gave up on him. He made a move for the door, and when he wasn't stopped, he opened it. He started walking away, but was stopped by the soldiers and taken back to the cabin. At this point, Norrington was functioning better, and stood up.

"Like I said, you are to stay in here until the threat on your life has passed."

"What the hell do you care about us? You don't even believe that Roy's a freaking Colonel!"

"Why should I believe you? You came out of nowhere, claim to be from a country that doesn't exist, and you also say that you work for the military of that country, when you have used a forbidden magic!"

"Look, this will be REALLY hard for you to believe, but we're from a different world, a world that's like this one, but in our world, it's 19-"

"Do you expect me to believe that?"

Ed pulled off his shoe and pointed to his foot. "Have you ever seen anything like this before? Do you think that it could be made by somebody with the technology you have? Times change, and I'm guessing that the technology in this world will be as advanced as ours in 200 years."

Norrington stared down at Ed. "I'm still not going to let you leave this ship."

"But do you believe me?"

Norrington spoke to one of the soldiers outside, and then returned to Ed.

"I am aware of the fact that you can use alchemy now. You won't be able to use it to escape."

"Oh, really? And why's that?" Ed asked sarcastically.

Norrington gave a signal, and a few soldiers walked in.

"These men will be keeping an eye on you. If you do anything suspicious, they will stop you."

"How?"

"I have given them permission to use any means necessary."

"Like killing me?"

"Why would I have them kill you? I'm trying to _protect_ you."

"But if that's what it takes to stop me…"

"I doubt you will ever go that far."

"Oh, yeah? And why's that?"

"Don't you want to stay alive for the sake of your brother? We will return shortly."

Ed sat down. He didn't see a way out of this that wouldn't result in injury. If he messed around with the ship too much, there would be problems when the ship sailed back to Port Royal. If he tried to fight, he would most likely end up losing. Five-on-one in such a small space, with reinforcements just outside the door, he wouldn't be able to get out without hurting somebody, and he had a feeling that would make things worse.

After a while, the soldiers seemed to assume Ed wasn't going to try anything. They stopped paying attention to him, and started to talk amongst themselves. Ed smirked. This was his chance.

"For soldiers, you're not very disciplined, are ya?" he asked.

"What about you? You work in a military, or so I've heard, and yet you don't listen to orders from your superiors?"

"Excuse me? I don't really know what the equivalent of my rank is with your navy, but I'm pretty sure I outrank your precious Commodore. My rank is equal to that of a Major."

"Doesn't that man outrank you? The one with the black hair?"

"Yeah, but he never ordered me to stay here…"

"But he brought you over here."

"So?"

"So he probably wanted you to stay over here."

"This is a tricky situation. I'm not acting the way I usually would. You, on the other hand…"

"What about us?"

"You're not directly involved in this. My brother was taken away. He could be killed, and after all we've been through, if he were to die, I wouldn't be able to go on living."

"Look, if you're trying to get us to pity you and let you out, it's not going to work. They're going to find your brother, and you're going to stay here, out of harm's way."

"I wasn't trying to go for pity."

"What?"

"I've given up trying to deal with the Commodore. I'm just waiting for the moment when we return home."

"Then why are you criticizing us?"

"Because, if you're soldiers, then you should follow orders."

"Well, we were ordered to stop you if you tried to escape, and you haven't tried yet, have you?"

"No, but that's just because I've given up. If you're not paying attention, I have an easier chance of getting away, right?"

"So why did you point it out?"

"Does it matter? I said I gave up, so why do you care?"

"Why don't you be quiet?"

"Why don't YOU?"

This last comment earned Ed a nice punch on the face.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Be quiet!"

Since he had a valid reason, Ed punched the guy back, with his right arm. He did enough damage to have one less person to worry about, and didn't resist when the other soldiers in the room jumped him.


	7. Chapter 7

Note: there seems to be some confusion among the readers, so I'm clarifying a bit. This fanfiction was written in the summer, when I was still sort of stuck on the anime, so therefore I was still using the anime names from the DVDs, hence the usage of _Liza_ Hawkeye.

And I don't know _where_ that comment about Elizabeth came from, as I never referred to Riza as Elizabeth. I referred to Elizabeth Swan as Elizabeth, because that is her actual name, but not Riza.

And no, I will not be editing this anytime soon. I'm a little busy with my other fanfics and _trying to graduate_ to go through and change something like that. If you have a problem with this, then please be polite about it instead of calling me an idiot, because that's childish and not helpful in the writing process at all.

-------------------

Roy, Al, and Jack were all in a little boat, heading towards the island. They could hear noise from within, and Jack assumed that they hadn't done anything yet. They came up to the shore, and Jack walked through the crowd, letting himself be noticed.

Barbosa had heard that Jack was alive from Ragetti (see, I used his name!!!!!) but seeing him put him on edge.

"What are you doing here?"

"I got lost."

"I find that hard to believe."

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"What do you think we're doing here?"

"Oh, right, the curse. Well, I thought you'd like to know that there is a 15-year-old boy waiting for the chance to get revenge, and he'll soon have that chance, it seems, along with a shipful of soldiers."

"So, what are you saying?"

"That you should be careful."

"Are you trying to protect this boy?"

"Not really."

"Then why are you here?"

is too lazy to write the whole making-of-a-deal-btw-Jack-and-Barbosa here, if you've seen the movie, you'll know what goes here

While this was going on, Al and Roy snuck by and hid. They waited until all the pirates had left.

------------------

"So you were just left there?"

"Yep."

"For a month?"

"Yep."

"With only a knife."

"Yep."

"And you survived."

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"I was being sarcastic. Jeez."

Ed was holding a conversation with one of the guards. He had tried to knock somebody else out, but it hadn't worked. Instead, one of the soldiers had brought in a rope and was using it to prevent another attack on Ed's part. Ed was in a _very_ awkward position. They had used force, and also prevented him from having time to transmute.

When the soldier was done, he allowed Ed to move to a sitting position.

"But that's the start of how I got so good at fighting."

"Ah. That explains it."

Ed sat on the floor, still surrounded by soldiers, who were paying very close attention to him now. He wasn't having much luck trying to get away. After a while, he heard a noise. It was a very disturbing noise, and distracted the soldiers for a moment. He used this instant to clap his hands together very lightly and transmute the rope a bit.

"What was that?" He asked, looking worried.

"I don't know."

"Gee, you're helpful," Ed remarked.

"You really don't know when to be quiet, do you?"

"Shh. I hear something."

Everybody in the cabin was quiet. They could hear the sounds of a fight coming from above them.

"Those pirates got on board?"

"Apparently. Ya know, sticking me in some tiny cabin on a ship that pirates managed to board wasn't the best idea for keeping me safe."

Ed heard footsteps approaching before the door was opened rather suddenly by Commodore Norrington.

"Having some problems, Commodore?" Ed asked, a smirk on his face.

"We need to get you out of here. You're not safe."

"Still concerned about my safety, huh? Don't worry, I can take care of myself from here." Ed pulled off the ropes, to the surprise of everybody, and headed towards the door. The Commodore stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"It's not safe here anymore, is it? So I figure the further I get away from here, the easier it is for me to stay safe. I've been through worse than this. I can handle myself."

"You'll need a boat."

"Yeah, that would be helpful."

"I'll help you with that, but nothing else."

"That's good enough for me."

--------------------

Roy had been very lucky. By the time the pirates had found them, he had hidden inside the armor. Now he just had to keep quiet and wait for the right moment. Hopefully nobody would forget that Al didn't have a body and wouldn't try to stab him. That wouldn't be very good. Or would it?

Miniskirt.

He couldn't see, but he could hear. Nobody was saying anything interesting. Soon he heard footsteps. Al whispered to Roy, "It's brother."

"What the hell is he doing? He's late!"

"I think he realizes that. Here, nobody's looking at me. Get out now."

It took a moment for Roy to get out, and his attempts didn't go unnoticed. Soon everybody was watching with some amusement as Roy tried to get out of the armor, and finally he fell to the ground, his pride bruised more than anything.

"What the hell-" Ed began.

"Oh, hi, Fullmetal."

"Um, why were you inside my brother?"

"That sounds a little strange," Jack remarked.

"Well he's a suit of armor, what was I supposed to say?"

"Your brother's a suit of armor?" Will asked.

"Well, yeah, what did you think?"

"I thought he wore that armor to hide his body..."

"Well, that's not the case, now is it?"

"Your world is very strange."

"What?"

"Well, if you're calling a suit of armor your brother… I mean, how was your brother born?"

"What?"

"I mean, giving birth to a suit of armor, wouldn't that be painful?"

"It would be rather painful, now that you mention it…"

"What the hell are you talking about? There wasn't anything strange about Al's birth. He was just born, like any other person is. The only reason he is the way he is now is that he lost his body and I had to bond his soul to the armor."

"How did you manage that?"

"I hate to interrupt this _fascinating_ conversation, but you all seem to be forgetting something," Barbosa said menacingly.

"Oh, right. _That_…" Ed broke free from the grasp of the pirate that was holding him and brought his hands together. He transmuted his arm and slashed at the pirates behind him. Roy used his flame alchemy, and a long and dramatic fight ensued.

-------------------

After a while, Roy was knocked out and Ed was pinned against the wall. He saw one of the pirates grin as he realized Ed's arm was removable. _Oh, no_, Ed thought. _If I lose my arm, Winy will kill me._ He struggled, but stood very still once a blade was pressed against his throat. He didn't have much a choice but to let them take his arm off and throw it far away.

There wasn't much he could do now. He couldn't use alchemy without drawing a circle, and he was unarmed. Not wanting to be killed, he didn't struggle against the grip of the pirates as they brought him to where Roy was. One guarded them while another went to find a rope. Al was still fighting, and didn't notice that his brother had been caught.

Ed noticed that Roy still had his gloves on. He felt a vague feeling of hope, but it was gone once the pirate guarding them pulled the gloves off and threw them into a nearby puddle. For once, the two of them were useless, Ed mused. Whenever they had to work together, Ed was almost always the one who was able to keep them from dying. Roy's flame alchemy was handy, but if those gloves got wet, he was absolutely useless. Ed liked to rub this in his face whenever he got the chance, but he wouldn't this time.

After the two of them were tied up, Roy woke up. He saw Ed watching the fight helplessly, and it took him a moment to understand that his arm was missing. The other pirates had left them in a corner, and had joined the fight again.

"What happened, Fullmetal?"

"They knocked you out, took my arm off, and made sure that the both of us would be completely useless."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, without your precious gloves, there's not much you can do, is there?"

"Who said that was my only pair of gloves?"

"You mean, you have another pair hidden somewhere?"

"I should, somewhere…"

Ed watched with some amusement as Roy tried to reach into his pocket and put his gloves on. It took a while, but he finally succeeded. He snapped his fingers, and the ropes were burnt enough to get them off. Once he could move freely, he untied Ed, warning him to stay where he was, then headed towards the fray. He used his alchemy enough for Will to make it to the chest. Ed got up, and realized that Barbosa had the medallion. It would be pointless for Will to do anything unless he had the medallion.

Thinking quickly, he came up with a brilliant idea. Using Roy's flames as a cover, he made his way up to Will. "Cut yourself real quick, someplace other than your hand. I know what to do." (EMO)

After Ed laid out the plan, Will nodded, and used his sword to cut his arm. He continued fighting, but he slowly allowed himself to be subdued. Ed got the message to his brother and Jack, but Roy was a little more difficult. Ed could only hope that Roy would notice that he was the only one fighting, and stop. After a while, he did notice, and he surrendered.

-------------------

Havoc was having a hard time. Nothing he did seemed to faze the pirates. He looked over at Liza, who was having the same problem. How were they supposed to fight against immortal pirates? He was stumped.

After a while, he ran out of bullets. He had a sword, but he wasn't very good with it. His only chance was to jump overboard, and it seemed that Liza had the same idea in mind. They both ended up in the sea, but they found a place to climb back aboard the ship below the deck. Here they ran into Norrington, who informed them that Ed had left.

Having no other methods of transportation, they were forced to swim to the island. It took a lot of effort, and they had to pause and breathe for a long while before they continued up toward where the others were. The scene they came upon in secret was startling.

Everybody except for Ed and Al was tied up. Ed, who was missing his arm, was sitting quietly by his brother. It seemed like they had lost.

------------------

Barbosa approached Ed first. Ed, looking miserable, didn't move until Barbosa was two inches away from his face.

"So what made you decide to give up so easily? Surely you didn't think that we'd let you live?"

Ed looked up, making his face as pathetic as possible. His mind was racing. Barbosa had realized part of his plan. He was so close, but couldn't do anything without seeming suspicious. He had noticed Jack muttering something to Roy earlier, and hoped that Roy understood the plan.

As soon as Barbosa grew tired of taunting Ed, he went over to Will. Ed stood up at this point, drawing Barbosa back over to him. "What is it with you? You still seem to think that you'll be getting out of this alive. Do you know something we don't?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then, tell me."

"I can't."

"Don't play games with me, boy. You're in a very tight situation."

"Th-that medallion, it's not the real thing," Ed stammered, pointing at the medallion hanging from Barbosa's coat.

"What do you mean, it's not the real thing?"

"It's a fake I transmuted a while ago. I have the real one."

"Do you now?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, why don't you hand it over?"

"Only if you swear to let us live."

"Fine. I swear I won't kill any of you. Not even the two over there."

"What? What two?"

Havoc and Liza appeared, being held at sword-point by two of the pirates. Ed was caught off-guard for a moment, which Barbosa used to get hold of Ed's arm. "Now, hand it over, or all of these people will be killed."

Ed nodded, and put his hand in his pocket. He felt around, checked his other pocket, checked every pocket in his coat, and finally looked up in embarrassment. "I lost it."

"What?"

"I don't know where it is!"

"Do you expect me to believe you?"

"What? What makes you think I'm lying?"

"Why would you wait so long to use it to save the lives of your friends?"

"I wasn't thinking straight! I'm not that old, you know!"

The argument was giving Al enough time to secretly transmute a fake medallion, stick it into the pocket of the coat he was holding, and pull it out. "Oh, here, brother, I found it."

"See? I told you I had it!"

"So, let me have it."

"Will you keep your word?"

"If it's the real thing, yes."

"How will you know?"

"Once my men get back, I'll put this one in the chest, and see if it works."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then I'll kill them."

"Not us?"

"Not you and your brother. There's something I want from the two of you."

"What?"

"I'm not telling you."

Ed was beginning to get frustrated. This wasn't going the way he had planned it. Out of total desperation, he tripped Barbosa and started running. As he looked back, he saw that Barbosa was following him, without the medallions. He headed for the boat, knowing that it was pointless, but hoping Al would switch the medallions.

-----------------

Al used Ed's distraction to end the madness. He took the real medallion off its chain, and put the fake one onto the chain just as Ed was caught. He gave the real one to Will, and barely had time to transmute another fake one before Barbosa returned and threw Ed to the ground.

"Who do you think you're fooling? I know that this is a fake now," Barbosa said, picking up the one on the chain.

"Damn," Ed muttered from the ground, more from pain than defeat. Barbosa had a foot on his hand, and he was definitely putting more pressure on it than needed, but as long as Will did his job, everything would work out.

They received some unexpected help as Elizabeth arrived on the scene. She provided enough of a distraction for Will, who had managed to get loose from the rope, to sneak past Barbosa and return the medallion to the chest with a few drops of blood, successfully ending the curse. There was a gunshot, and Ed was suddenly able to move his hand. Jack, who had also gotten loose, had finally gotten his revenge. Jack had shot Barbosa, with the gun he had carried with him for ten years.

---------------------

Commodore Norrington took some of his men on a boat to the island. They had won the battle, and now it was time to bring those that had gone to the island back to the ship. When he arrived, he saw that everybody from his side was still alive. They were recovering from a fight, he could tell. He sent his men to escort everybody back to the ship.

Ed seemed strangely relieved that the Commodore was all right. He walked over to him, wearing his red coat. "So you won?"

"Yes. It seems that you succeeded in ending the curse?"

"Yeah, we were. It took a while, but we managed it. Now can you help me with something?"

"What?"

"I lost my arm in the fight, can you help me find it?"

Norrington gave him a blank stare. "You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm not. Can't you tell?" Ed asked, pulling on his sleeve to show that there was no arm there.

"Somebody cut off your arm?"

"No, they actually yanked it off and threw it somewhere."

By this point, the Commodore seemed to have some troubles with what Ed was saying. Ed, noticing the horrified look on Norrington's face, started laughing.

"Don't worry, it's not my real arm…"

"It's not? What do you mean?"

"I lost it when I lost my leg. My arm's automail too."

"Oh, I see."

""So, will you help me find it?"

"Yes."

--------------------

After Ed's arm was found, they took a boat back to the ship. Ed didn't notice that he and the others from his world were being taken to a different ship than Jack and Will. He was too tired, and he was also sore from being pushed around so much. He didn't even bother trying to put his arm back on, since he didn't want to deal with the pain. It could wait until morning. He followed the Commodore blindly, and it barely registered that he was in the same room he had been in before. Then he was asleep, and blissfully unaware of everything around him.

He woke up in the middle of the night. Something was bothering him, but he didn't know what. Silently, he pulled on his coat, and opened the door to the room. There were no guards, so he crept up to the deck. There were a few guards out, but they didn't notice him. They were too busy looking at something else.

Ed looked at what they were staring at, and grinned. It was the Black Pearl, sailing away. Ed wondered why none of the guards had done anything, and noticed Norrington standing nearby, clearly trying not to smile.

"I think it would be too difficult to go after the ship now."

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh, it would be too much effort, and besides, cleaning up after these incidents comes first, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I think so. So you let them go?"

"Not me, I believe Mr. Turner and Ms. Swan had something to do with it. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Yeah, I guess so…" Ed wandered off and made his way back to bed.

-------------------

Okay, so after this chapter, I had no idea what to write, so it's kinda filler-tastic and not so good filler stuff that isn't very important to the plot BUT it's the end of the fanfic for the first movie, so I guess it may be somewhat important… I dunno though… I just don't like it…

Oh, and as for the whole thing with Roy and the Or would it? Miniskirt, that's due to me having no inspiration and my sister coming in and being like "why wouldn't him dying be good? He could go to heaven where it would be one giant miniskirt" or something along those lines.

So yeah, that's a reference to Roy thinking about where he'll go after he dies. Or something like that.


	8. Chapter 8

FILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, so only the last paragraph or two are really important in this chapter, so you can just read that if you want… I don't really know why I wrote this part, maybe because I was… bored? No, I seriously don't have a clue. Enjoy it anyway.

----------------

It was a beautiful morning. The two British ships were sailing back to Port Royal. Ed was sitting on his bed with his shirt off, observing his arm, and not really wanting to deal with the pain. He performed an inspection of every part of it, trying to see if everything looked okay. There was a slight dent from where it had struck a rock, but that was it. Nothing to delay the pain. He sighed, and positioned his arm, bracing himself. He was about to put it in when the door opened.

Ed was startled by this, and fell over. He looked up to see Will standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I _was_ about to reattach my arm, but then _you_ decided to freaking sneak up on me!"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, it's fine. I'm just not looking forward to this."

"Won't you be glad to have both arms again?"

"Yeah, but when you attach it, it's incredibly painful. Even a grown man will cry out."

"Do you need help?"

"Why would I need help?"

"I don't know, I just thought I'd offer."

"Thanks, but I'll be fine."

"All right."

"Wait. What did you come down here for?"

"Oh, right. Roy wanted to talk to you. Should I tell him you're busy?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

Will left the room, leaving Ed to put his arm in. He finally managed to do it, and held back a scream, not wanting anybody to freak out. Once the pain had subsided enough so that he could bear it, he breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could move freely again. He pulled his shirt back on, and laid down for a while, waiting for the pain to go away. During this time, Roy came into the room.

"So, you can move freely again?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are you just lying there?"

"Because it hurts like hell, Colonel."

"It can't be that bad."

"Well, it is. What do you want?"

"It's about getting back."

"Do you know how to get out of here?"

"No, but I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"We arrived here in a storm, right? Well, if we go to where the storm here was, we can probably find our way back."

"And how do we get there?"

"That's the trouble. I doubt we'll get any help from these people."

"What about Jack?"

"We'd have to find him first."

"So, we're just stuck here?"

"Probably."

"Maybe we'll get back the way we got here, without meaning to."

"So you're saying we should just hope we accidentally get back?"

"No, I just don't have a clue."

"I guess we're stuck then." Roy sat down at the foot of the bed, which made Ed decide to sit up.

"I guess so. But we still have stuff to do here."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I have this feeling that we need to stay."

"You want to stay here?"

"It's not that bad, is it? Despite the fact that people look at me funny…"

"People have been looking at you funny for a long time. Haven't you noticed?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, you tend to stand out. You wear a red coat, you braid your hair, and you're only-"

"If you're going to make fun of me, you could at least stop dragging it out."

"I'm not making fun of you. I'm just telling you why people stare at you."

"And also making fun of my height."

"It's not my fault you're small."

Ed walked out of the room and wandered around, looking for somebody else to talk to. He wasn't in pain anymore, just filled with rage at the Colonel. He didn't like being small, and he especially didn't like that particular fact being rubbed in his face like a fresh pile of dog doo (my conclusion from this statement is, Roy has bad breath). After a while, he saw Will and went to talk with him.

"Hi."

"Hi. So your arm's working all right now?"

"Yeah."

"I told Roy you were putting your arm back on. He didn't seem to care."

"He's like that sometimes."

"You don't like him much, do you?"

Ed looked around, and not seeing Lt. Hawkeye, replied, "Of course not, he's a sarcastic, perverted know-it-all who blackmails me into doing stuff he doesn't want to do himself."

"Really? He doesn't seem that bad…"

"Plus he's power-hungry. He'll do _anything_ for a promotion."

"He doesn't seem like that at all to me."

"Well, if you worked under him, you'd see what I mean."

"He was very worried about you when you stayed behind."

"Probably because he doesn't want to have do deal with all the paperwork my death would cause. He _is_ responsible for me after all."

"Why did you join the military if you don't like it?"

"Haven't I said this before? I joined so I could find a way to get Al's body back."

"But I thought you said he didn't have a body."

"He does, and we know where it is, but we don't know how to get it back."

"Oh, I see."

------------------

The next few days went by peacefully, and the ships finally reached Port Royal. Since Will was responsible for the escape of Captain Jack Sparrow, he was in a very tricky situation. Roy managed to get them to leave him alone, using his divine influence, but then all eyes were turned to the group from Amestris.

Since they were from a different country, nobody had any control over them, but the Commodore decided something needed to be done, mostly so he wouldn't lose any respect and jeopardize his position. He decided to keep them under surveillance, not because he expected them to do anything, but because it seemed the best way to avoid criticism from his superiors.

Ed wasn't really paying attention to all the legal stuff going on around him. He was more worried about the dent in his arm. It wasn't affecting his movement, but it could lead to more problems, which would lead to a trip to Resembool, which would lead to Winry killing him. He didn't really want to use alchemy on it, since he wasn't ever alone for more than a couple of minutes, usually when he had to go to the bathroom.

After a while, he realized that the dent was on an easily removable part, and that he could probably get Will to fix it. With that in mind, he went over to the blacksmith shop where he had first met him.

When he went in, Will was working on something, but he stopped when he saw Ed. Putting whatever it was that he was making aside, he walked over.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine, umm, I was wondering… could you do me a HUGE favor?"

"What is it?"

Ed pulled up his sleeve, and pointed to the dent in his arm. "I'm guessing this could lead to some more problems, and I can't use alchemy without one of _them_ noticing," Ed whispered, gesturing to the two soldiers who had followed him.

"So you want me to fix it?"

"Could you? I _really_ don't want to have to go see my mechanic when I get back, she'll kill me for messing it up."

"I'll do it. After all, you helped me, so this is the least I could do."

"Great." Ed messed around with his arm, and managed to get it off after a bit. Will looked with amazement at what was beneath the cover.

"What are all these wires?"

"Oh, this is how it works, the wires carry the signals from the nerves down to my hand and such, and then whatever part I want to move moves. It's a lot more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea."

While Will was working, Ed noticed something on a table. "What's that?" he asked, pointing.

"Oh, that's an engagement ring. I'm asking Elizabeth to marry me."

"Really? That's great!" Ed said, happy for his friend. They talked about it while Ed's arm was being fixed, and once it was done, Ed left, allowing his friend to get back to work.

Despite the fact that they were stuck, Ed was fairly happy. The people in the town were nice, and they regarded him as a hero. The news had spread very quickly about how he had helped to defeat the pirates that had attacked them earlier. Nobody was mentioning his height, either, for some unfathomable reason. Yes, everything was going well. He still wanted to return to Amestris, because he wanted to return his brother to his original body, but he wasn't in a big hurry.

After about two weeks, during which Elizabeth accepted Will's proposal, Ed and Al were told to go to the Commodore's office. They slowly wandered up there, wondering what he wanted them for. Once there, they were told to sit down in the office. The Commodore had some other business to attend to, but would be there shortly. Then they were left alone in the room. After a couple minutes, they started talking.

"I wonder what's going on,"

"Me too. If this had something to do with us getting back, then why would he just have us come up?"

"Maybe they're coming, or he already told them."

"Could be…"

"I want to get back, brother. If what the Colonel said about the philosopher's stone is true, then we could get our bodies back."

"Yeah…"

The door opened, and the Commodore entered. He sat down at his desk, and looked at the two boys. "I have good news."

"What's that?"

"From what you told me, I think I know how to get you back to your world."

"Really?"

"Yes. I've already spoken to the Colonel, and he agreed with my theory, so the five of you will be taken on a ship across the Atlantic, where you will most likely end up being taken back to your world."

"But, when we came, it was during a storm. What if that's the only way to get back?"

"You'll most likely end up in a storm, the sea is unpredictable."

"But won't people get hurt, or killed?"

"Once you are close enough, you five will be transferred to a small ship, and it will be small enough to be easily sailed by a crew of three, so you will be able to make it on your own."

"And that's fine with you? Giving up one of your ships?"

"It's not a ship that is important to the British Royal Navy. Do you have anything you need to do? Your ship will leave in a few weeks, so you will have to wait for a while, but at least you have a way to get back, right?"

"Yeah, thank you."

-------------------

A few weeks had passed. The time for them to leave was getting close. Ed was bored. He spent most days wandering around the town, but today it was dumping buckets of rain, so he had to stay inside.

He had just gotten done talking to the Commodore with his brother, and they were standing by a window, staring at the rain pouring down. Both of them still had people following them, and one of them suggested that they look around the headquarters. Having nothing else to do, they agreed.

It only killed off the boredom for an hour. The tour ended in a large room, which one of the soldiers said was for sword practice and such, when the weather was too bad to practice outside. There were a few people in the room, training, and Ed recognized one of them from the ship. The man noticed his gaze and walked over.

"It's good to see you again. I wish we had met under better circumstances."

"Me too. What's your name?"

"You can call me Nathan. What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's raining, and we didn't have anything else to do, so we just got done with a tour."

"I assume you're still looking for something to do, then?"

"Yeah, we are."

"When was the last time you trained?"

"Trained?"

"You work for a military, right? Shouldn't you train some?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess…"

"Then you're in the perfect place. Care to have a go?"

Ed grinned. "Just don't think it'll be as easy this time."

"Of course not. What do you usually use as a weapon?"

"Well, I usually end up fighting unarmed," Ed said.

"That's a good change in pace for me. Let's start."

Ed proved to be the better fighter, and won fights against all challengers. He was starting to get cocky, so his brother challenged him, in the hopes of calming him down. Everybody in the room was watching now. They wanted to see the match between brothers.

Ed lost miserably. Al had once again triumphed over his older brother. The spectators, most of which had lost to Ed, were all thrilled that somebody had beaten him, and all cheered. The brothers spent the rest of the day practicing with swords, where they were beaten. Ed claimed it was because he was tired from all the previous fighting, but Al knew that his brother hadn't spent much time wielding a normal sword, having been content with transmuting his arm into a blade whenever he needed a weapon.

After a few hours, Ed realized that he was improving. He wasn't as easy for people to beat, and he even won several times. Thrilled by his newfound abilities, he was very content that evening, not even minding when he learned that they would be having dinner with the Commodore that evening, which meant having to act all proper.

---------------

The time finally came to leave. Ed was excited at the prospect of returning, and got up very early that morning. He went down to the dock with Al, hoping that for some reason the ship would leave early and they could get there faster. Once he realized that it would still be a few hours, he remembered that he hadn't said goodbye to Will. They went over to the blacksmith shop, and found him working on something.

"I heard you're leaving."

"Yes, we're going to try and get back to our country."

"It'll be a lot quieter without you."

"Yeah."

"We can still be friends, though, even if we don't ever see each other again. I'll think of you."

"Me too."

"Bye."

"Bye."

----------------

Half of the town was by the docks when they returned. It seemed that they were going to be missed a lot. Ed was very upset about going back to where he didn't have as good of a reputation, and went below deck to lurk in his cabin before they left.

The first part of the trip was uneventful. Ed spent most of his time training with Nathan and Al, or being sick during a stormy day. Soon, he was able to deal with the seasickness, and he was functioning a lot better. This trip was really helping him be stronger.

They arrived at a port after two weeks, having been blown off course by one of the storms. The five were then shown to their ship, a small one that didn't look like much, and they set off the next day.

Ed was the one who ended up steering the ship, having learned a lot from Jack. They sailed for a few days, alternating shifts so that everybody had a decent amount of time to rest, except for Al, who didn't need any rest. After a week, they saw black clouds approaching.

Everyone had their hopes up. Was this the storm that would bring them home? They became more hopeful, and more anxious, as they drew nearer to the storm. It seemed eerily familiar to everybody, which was taken as a good sign. Finally, they were there, and they did their best to keep the ship intact. Ed used his alchemy constantly, and everybody else was rushing around, trying to prevent the ship from being toppled over.

There was a lull in the storm, which they took advantage of to eat something, but it came back in a rage. Huge waves overwhelmed the little ship, and one of these waves broke the mast. Ed saw the mast toppling, and ran to fix it with alchemy. Before he could, though, he was swept overboard by another wave. Somehow he managed to grab hold of the mast and stay afloat, but as the waves slowly started to ease up, he was drifting farther and farther away from the ship. Ed couldn't use alchemy, because if he let go of the mast, he would drown. He saw everybody trying to find a way to get him back, and then, all of a sudden, the ship disappeared. It didn't get knocked over by a wave, it didn't capsize, it just disappeared.

Ed was sure that they had made it back. He was also determined to get back, too. Once he could use his hands without worrying about losing his grip, he transmuted part of the mast into something he could use to get closer to where the ship had disappeared. It was still stormy, though, and Ed wore himself out very quickly. Soon it was all he could do to stay on the mast, and he decided that it would be better to stay on the mast than keep pushing himself. He got a good grip, and used one of the ropes to keep himself from falling off. It was a very good thing he did, because he soon drifted out of consciousness.

---------------

Yes, if you read all of that, you can see that it's only the last two paragraphs that have any significance at all.

NEXT CHAPTER: THE RETURN OF THE CRAZY PEOPLEZ!!!!!!!!!!!

Considering that all I'm doing is copying and pasting, it really shouldn't take this long between chapters, should it? XD I'm just too lazy.


	9. Chapter 9

"When will he wake up?"

"Soon."

"I can't believe he's still alive after all that."

"Me either. It's lucky we found him."

"Any idea why the captain's so obsessed with him?"

"No."

Ed opened his eyes. He vaguely recognized where he was, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He was too out of it to understand what had happened. He looked over at where the voices were coming from. There were two people in the room with him. They looked like pirates, but he couldn't be sure. Had he made it back, or was he still in that other world?

One of the two noticed that he was awake, and walked over. "So you're alive."

Ed tried to sit up, but failed. "I guess so. Where am I?"

"Can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Captain's orders. He said you should be able to figure it out for yourself."

"What kind of lame-brained, psychotic captain would…" Ed began, and then realized something. "Oh, never mind."

The other one smiled. "Figured it out, have you?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Get some rest, the captain will be down later this evening."

"Wait, how long have I been here?"

"Not too long, just since yesterday."

"I've been here for a day?"

"Yes. Now get some rest. You're lucky to be alive," the first one said as they left the room.

Ed didn't go to sleep right away. If he was really where he thought he was, then that meant he hadn't made it back. And if the others had made it back, his chances of making it back alone weren't very good. He groaned. This wasn't going very well.

After a while, he was too tired to think, and dozed off.

-------------

When he woke up, Ed realized he wasn't alone. Somebody was in the room with him, but he didn't feel like rolling over to see who it was. If this person wanted something from him, he'd find out soon enough.

After a couple of minutes, Ed was sick of waiting, and rolled over. The person standing there was none other than Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Nice to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same. I barely missed getting back."

"Ah. That would explain you floating by on a broken mast."

"I shouldn't have tried to fix it."

"You'll get back someday."

"Yeah, whatever."

Ed sat up. He was still tired, but he could move now. He only now noticed that he was in his underwear.

"What happened to my clothes?"

"They're drying."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense," Ed said, beginning to get embarrassed.

Jack looked at Ed for a moment. "So how is everybody?"

"What? You mean like Will and Elizabeth?"

"Yes."

"Oh, they're fine, they're actually getting married."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think he said the wedding was… actually, it should be happening in like three weeks."

"How interesting."

---------------

For the next few days, Ed was clueless about what to do. After a while, he realized that Jack seemed stranger than usual, and decided that if he helped, maybe he'd have a better chance of returning to his world. So, early one morning, when the rest of the crew was still asleep, he went up to the deck and found Jack standing by the helm.

"So where are we headed?"

"To an island."

"NO WAY. Really?"

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Not really, since I'm all alone in a strange world, on a pirate ship heading to a place that nobody but you seems to know about."

"All right. If you must know, I'm looking for a key."

"A key? What does said key open?"

"A chest."

"And what's in the chest?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because I want to know what you're doing!"

"Why would you want to know that?"

"Because I'm just a curious li- young child who's been separated from his brother and needs something to do to calm his nerves!"

"And you think knowing what I'm after will do that?"

"Well, it'll give me something else to think about."

"All right then." Jack turned around and leaned against the rail. "Do you know about Davy Jones?"

"No, why would I? I'm from a different world."

"All right. Davy Jones was a man…"

"I figured that much out."

"He took out his heart and locked it in a chest so nobody could kill him."

"WTF?"

"So I'm looking for that chest, so that I can barter with him for my life."

"Why would he want to kill _you_? I mean, it's not like you're important or anything…" Ed trailed off as he saw a gun pointed at his head. "What? I was kidding!"

Jack put the gun away and continued. "I made a deal with him a while ago, but that deal didn't work out the way I wanted it to."

"Does it have anything to do with this ship?"

"Oh, aren't you a smart one? Yes, it was a deal that I could be Captain of the Pearl for 13 years."

"And, since it was taken over by Barbosa for ten years, you don't really like the deal now?"

"Not really."

"I wouldn't either. Funny how you expect one thing to happen, but it turns out completely wrong."

"And you have experience with this, don't you?"

"Yeah. This right here," Ed gestured to his arm, "is proof of that."

"You never told me what happened."

"I didn't?"

"No, you didn't."

"How strange. Do you really want to know?"

"Sort of."

"Well, it's a little complicated."

"That's fine."

"And the story's sad."

"That won't bother me, I'm a pirate."

"And a tad violent."

"I'm a pirate."

"Fine. If it's that important to you…"

"In a way, it is."

Ed sighed, and looked around. None of the crew had really woken up yet, so he had time. "A while after Al was born, our father left. He didn't tell anybody where he was going, and he didn't keep in touch at all. Right now, we don't even know if he's dead or alive."

"And what does that have to do with what happened?"

"Shut up and listen if you want me to continue."

"Fine."

"Soon after he left, we started learning alchemy. It was really easy for us, and everybody kept saying we inherited our father's talent. And because of that, our abilities in alchemy made our mom happy. That's the whole reason we kept studying, to make her happy. But then one day…"

"What?"

"We came home, and she had collapsed on the floor. She was sick for a while, and then she died, leaving us alone. That's when I got an idea."

"An idea?"

"I had read something in one of my dad's books about an artificially created human. I told Al, and we devoted most of our time studying the composition of a human body, trying to find a way to bring back our mother. We even found somebody to teach us. The training was… well…" Ed trailed off for a moment, not wanting to think about it. "Anyways, we learned a lot from her, and so we returned after half a year to continue working on a theory. Then, one day…"

"One day what?"

"I perfected our theory, and we tried to bring her back."

"Did it work?"

"No, it didn't. Al lost his body, and I lost my leg. I managed to bond Al's soul to that armor, but at the cost of my arm."

"And your mother?"

"That thing we created, it wasn't what you could call human. After seeing that, the curse those pirates were under, and how they looked in the moonlight, was like watching a bunch of puppies running around happily in a field of flowers."

"Interesting comparison. So basically, all you did was for nothing."

"Pretty much. We watched our mom die twice." Ed sighed, and looked over at the rising sun. The crew was starting to come out. "So how far is it to wherever?"

"We'll be there in a week and a half. We'll have to make a stop at a port on the way, to pick up some new supplies, and make some repairs."

"Repairs?"

"Yes, repairs. The ship was damaged when a broken mast rammed into it."

"Are you blaming that on me?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"And what might that be? Oh… I'll show you where it is."

-------------

When they reached the port Jack was talking about, Ed was eager to get on real land. He had gotten a lot better at dealing with the sea, and the motion that came with it, but he still preferred to be on something solid that didn't move all the time. He also liked not having to worry about falling overboard and drowning. That was also a big plus about dry land.

He went ashore with Jack and a couple of the crewmembers, several of which he recognized from before, and went to wander around for the few precious hours he had been given to enjoy land.

People stared at him as he walked around, but Ed had gotten used to this and ignored it. He looked at the shops and such around him, and when nothing caught his eye, he went to look for a place to sit.

As he turned a corner, he saw something interesting. It was a poster of him and his brother. Curious, he went closer, and saw that it was a wanted picture. He read the details, glad that the people here used the same writing system as they did, and was a little surprised. It went as follows:

_Wanted_

_For crimes against the Crown, including:_

_Associating with pirates_

_Assisting in the theft of a ship of the Royal Navy_

_Assisting in the escape of the infamous pirate Jack Sparrow_

Below were rough sketches of him and the armor that was his little brother, and some other details, such as their heights, their ages, and a couple of personality traits that would definitely give Ed away.

Ed decided to get out of the area fast. He walked down the street, trying not to draw too much attention to himself, and went to find Jack. He turned a corner, and accidentally ran into somebody. He fell backwards, rubbing his head, and looked up after a minute.

The man he had run into was really big, and he looked angry. "Watch where you're going, boy!"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Hey, you're that kid they're after, aren't you?"

"What?" Ed asked, trying to sound surprised. "What are you talking ab-"

"Don't try to fool me," the man said as he made a move to catch Ed. "I can tell you're the one they're after."

Ed jumped back, trying to look innocent. He was innocent, in fact, two of the crimes on the poster were false charges, and the other one wasn't that big of a deal, he thought. He kept avoiding the man, but other people started coming after him, making it harder to feign innocence. Eventually, he managed to disappear and ran towards the docks. He got to the water and ducked behind a wall. When he was sure nobody would see him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Not wanting to have any more problems, he undid his braid, used the nearby resources to dye his hair black, and also changed the color of his coat to a rather plain shade of brown. He didn't want to do anything to his eyes, but he figured nobody would look at his eyes. He rubbed dirt on his face, to try and hide his age, and once he was sure nobody would recognize him, he returned to the street.

Nobody noticed him, and he walked down the street where he was sure he'd find Jack. Before he got close, though, a very official looking person stopped him.

Making his voice sound as young as he could, he asked what the person wanted.

"What's a young boy like you doing wandering alone around here? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

"I-I'm looking for my father," Ed stammered. "He was going to meet me here today…"

"How old are you?"

Ed tried to think of an age that would convince the man. "I'm eight years old, sir." _EIGHT?!? I hope I never have to do this to myself ever again._

"And what does your father look like?"

"I don't know, sir."

"You don't know?"

"The last time I saw him was when I was two years old. I don't remember him very much."

"So how will you recognize him?"

"My mother says that he'll recognize me, but I've been looking around for hours, and…" Ed sniffled a bit, and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve. He worked on making his eyes tear up. "I've been looking forward to this trip for weeks, my father only just got back from being a prisoner on a pirate ship, and he was supposed to get here today, but I don't see anybody that could be him…"

"You poor boy. Would you like me to help you look?"

"No thank you. I want to show my father how strong and brave I've become."

"All right. What's your name?"

Ed wiped his eyes one more time. "Edward."

"And your surname?"

"I don't know, whenever I ask my mother, she would get really sad."

"What does your mother look like?"

"She has hair the color of chestnut, she's tall, and she has a really sad face."

"I don't recall there being anybody here matching that description."

"Well, she doesn't go outside much."

"How can I be sure you aren't lying to me?"

The tears were starting to come now. Ed looked up into the man's face. "How can you say that? My mother taught me to never lie. She said that one of the reasons she loved my father so much is that he was honest…" Ed started to cry harder, understanding very well that keeping the truth a secret depended on it.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Why don't you just keep looking for your father? I'll be here if you need help."

"Thank you," Ed mumbled before running off. He ran into Jack a bit farther up the street, and aware that he was being watched, tried to get his attention without revealing either of their identities.

"Excuse me, mister, can you help me?" Ed asked, pulling up his sleeve so that Jack could see the glint of his arm.

"What are you-"

"Please. I'm looking for somebody," Ed said in an urgent voice, trying to gesture that he was in trouble.

"Well, what does this person look like?"

"Um, well…" Ed trailed off. "Like me, I guess. He has a fishing boat."

"The best place to look would be on the docks."

"All right, thank you!" Ed ran towards the docks, hoping that Jack wouldn't follow him. As soon as he got there, he tried to hide from the man, who was still watching him. Finally, he was able to disappear from sight behind some barrels. He waited there for a moment, and then saw Jack walking by.

"Hey!" Ed waved at Jack, who stopped.

"What are you pulling?" he asked.

"I just found out that me and my brother are wanted for crimes we didn't commit. I almost got caught, too."

"Well, we're done getting supplies, we were just about to head back to the ship."

"Good. Where's the boat?"

"It's right there."

Ed looked around the barrels. The guy was still looking in his direction. "Damn it, he's still there."

"Who?" Ed pointed, and Jack was a little startled. "That's troublesome."

"Who is he?"

"That can wait. Just get in the boat."

Before they could get over to the boat without being noticed, a few men walked up. Ed stood up, and looked at them. They were the ones who had tried to capture him earlier.

"Um, do you want something?"

"Don't try to fool me, boy. I know who you are."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're the boy from earlier, I recognize your eyes!"

"What do you mean?"

Jack stepped in at this point. "What do you want with him?"

"Don't you know? This boy has been associating with pirates."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, boy."

"I'm confused, though. I saw the wanted poster, and the boy you're talking about has blonde hair, and walks around with a suit of armor. My hair is black, and I've never seen a suit of armor like that before."

"Don't try me. You could be wearing a wig, for all I know."

"But I'm not, see?" Ed pulled at his hair, and when it didn't come off, the men were quiet for a while.

"I still don't believe you."

"But I'm not who you say I am."

"Well, we'll just have to see about that."

"What do you mean?" Ed backed up so that he was behind Jack, hoping that the men wouldn't go too far.

Jack stood in front of Ed, staring at the men. "Why must you insist on bothering my son?"

"Your son?"

"Yes, my son."

Ed looked at him, and looked at the men. By this time the official looking person from earlier had made his way over. "What seems to be the problem here?"

Ed pointed to the men. "They're calling me a pirate!"

"Oh?" The men shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of this man.

"Well, we saw him earlier, and he must have done something to his hair and coat, but I know it's him!"

"How long ago did you see that boy?"

"Not too long ago, sir."

"And you think that he would have enough time to change the color of his hair?"

"Hasn't it been said that those two use dark magic?"

Ed was able to look very scared at this comment. "There's somebody out there who looks like me and uses dark magic?"

Jack tried to calm down his "son." "I'm sure it's just a rumor."

"It is simply a rumor. You have nothing to worry about, Edward."

"See? His name is the same as that boy's too!"

"And if he were trying to hide his identity, he would have used a different name."

"Y-yes, but-"

"That's enough. This isn't the boy, so leave him alone."

"All right." The men walked away, leaving Ed, Jack and the man alone.

"Thank you for your help," Jack said, trying to play the part of estranged dad. "I would have been upset if my son had been arrested on false charges."

"Not a problem. Glad to be of service, Mr…"

"Thornton. James Thornton."

"Ah, yes. Mr. Thornton. Good day to you both." The man walked off, and Ed and Jack boarded the boat. Luckily there happened to be a net on it, so the whole fishing trip excuse was a valid one. They rowed out to sea, not daring to say anything until they were out of earshot. Then Jack started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Edward Thornton? It doesn't sound too good, does it?"

"That's not my fault. You're the one who named me, _dad_."

"No, that was your mother. She _insisted_ that you be named Edward, after your great-grandfather."

"Man, those guys were obnoxious."

"You play the innocent little child very well."

"Who are you calling little?"

"Sit down, you're rocking the boat."

Ed sat down, and looked back at the shore. He could see somebody standing on the edge of the dock. He wasn't sure, but he thought it was the official looking person.

"So who is that guy?"

"He works for the East India Trading Company."

"So?"

"I don't have a very good reputation with them."

"Oh."

"I'm surprised it was so easy to get out of there."

"Me too. I guess I'm a really convincing child."

"I doubt it. I bet they're going to wait until evening for us to return. We should get away as soon as possible."

"Ya think?"

"You realize that I could easily push you into the sea, don't you?"

"You realize that I could easily use alchemy to get out, don't you?" Ed replied, but he was quiet nonetheless.

-------------

Once they were back at the ship, Ed turned his coat back to normal. He was about to turn his hair back when Jack stopped him. "You might want to leave it like that for a while."

"Why's that?"

"One of my crew mentioned that a very important part of the ship is missing."

"What? What part is that?"

"The rudder."

"How…"

"I don't know. But there are also people watching the ship from the top of that cliff."

"Well, can they see the area where the rudder is?"

"No."

"Do you have any extra wooden stuff around that you don't need?"

"Yes, we do. Can you make a new one?"

"Probably. What's it shaped like?"

"You've never seen a rudder?"

"Well, I have, but I want to get it right."

"All right, I'll show you. Come on."

Once Ed had all the exact measurements and such, he and Jack filled a boat with all the extra wood they could find, and rowed over to the stern. Ed arranged all the wood in the water, grateful that at least the wood could float, and transmuted it into a new rudder right where the old one had been. Jack inspected the work, and nodded.

"Very nice."

"Thank you."

"Oh, wait… You messed up right here."

"Right where?"

"There, it's too thin right there."

"Well, is there any more wood around?"

"Just this boat, and I don't want you to use it."

"Well, what can I use?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe I can even it out a bit, that spot's not too big…"

"All right, do that then."

Ed clapped his hands and reached out for the rudder. The boat had drifted a little too far away, though, and he lost his balance and fell into the sea. Jack grabbed his leg and pulled him back in.

"I think you need to move closer," Ed muttered crossly.

"What gave you that idea?"

"Shut up."

Jack moved the little boat as close as he could, and Ed re-transmuted the rudder. Jack approved of the job, and they rowed back to the ship. While they were climbing up the side, Ed felt something whiz by his head. He looked, and saw a bullet-sized hole in the side of the ship. "Uh, I think we have a slight problem here."

"What's that?"

"Somebody just tried to shoot me," Ed said, and lost his grip as another bullet hit his right hand. He fell off, barely missing Jack, and landed in the water. Luckily, it wasn't too deep, and he was able to transmute the rock so that his head was above the surface and he could breathe.

Jack was still on the side of the ship. He seemed unsure of what to do. When he saw that Ed was alive, he seemed to make up his mind. He kept climbing, narrowly avoiding being shot several times, and made it to the top. Ed could hear him shouting to throw a rope over the side. After a few tense minutes, a rope came down, and Ed grabbed hold of it.

The ship started moving at that moment, and Ed was glad to be getting out of there. Several more bullets were fired, coming very close to him, but nobody seemed to be trying to kill him. He was hanging above the ship, being lowered down, when a bullet grazed his side. It was painful and a little surprising, and he lost his grip on the rope. Luckily he wasn't very high in the air, but it still hurt when he landed on his back on the deck, and he lost consciousness.

-----------

Um…

My excuse for not updating is that I had been planning on rewriting the part that deals with the second movie, and also that I had completely botched one part up so I had to fix that… but since that part comes much later in the story, I should have updated this part, but I was like meh…

Yeah, I'm lazy as hell. XD


	10. Chapter 10

Since I suck at updating, I'm sort of making up for it by making this chapter extra-long. Enjoy the crappiness that is last year's writing. Well, not necessarily crappy, but everything improves with practice, right…?

----------------

Ed woke up late that evening. His side hurt, and he was very sore. He looked around, and saw that he was alone. Everybody else was probably trying to get the ship as far away from that island as possible. He didn't seem to be having much luck lately, he thought.

He tried to sit up, but that caused a wave of pain to course through his body. Not wanting to deal with it, he laid still for a while. Once he could stand it, he tried once again to move. Still no luck. This was bothering him. He didn't want to spend all his time in bed.

After a while, Jack came in. When he saw that Ed was awake, he sat down on the foot of the bed.

"Why did you let go?"

"Hmmm, maybe the fact that I had just been shot has something to do with it."

"You shouldn't let something that small bother you."

"Small?" Ed tried to get up and hit Jack, but it was too much of an effort, and he fell back, groaning.

After a while, he looked at the wound. It had been badly bandaged, and Ed was worried about something green that was near the wound.

"It was the best we could do at the time," Jack said, gesturing towards the bandage. " We needed to stop the bleeding, and also get as far away from that place as possible."

"If it's so dangerous for you, then why did you stop there in the first place?"

"I didn't think that we would have a problem with you."

"It's not my fault. The only true accusation on there was that I "associate" with pirates, and it's not like I wanted to."

"But you still did."

"It's your fault."

"And why is that?"

"Because if you hadn't been there, I wouldn't have had any pirates to associate with."

"And the young lady would have most likely died."

"She would have died earlier, if I hadn't gotten rid of those rocks."

"But you didn't swim to save her."

"Because I couldn't. Besides, I could have transmuted something to get her above water."

"But then people would have found out that you're an alchemist."

"But she still wouldn't have died."

"She was suffocating because of something she was wearing."

"I could have done something about that."

"How? If she was in the middle of the ocean…"

"I would have used alchemy to bring her over to where I was."

"But would you have known why she wasn't breathing?"

"If I saw the thingy."

"It's called a corset."

"I know what it's called, my friend wore one for like five minutes and then gave up because it was too hard to breathe."

"You must have been a very good friend to see her doing that."

"She did it over her clothes, and women where I'm from don't have to wear like 5 layers of clothing every day."

"So women where you're from are skimpily dressed?"

"Some of them are, but nobody cares."

"And why is that?"

"Because we're not as uptight as the people here. And what the hell is this green stain right here? I'm pretty sure it's moving."

"Why don't you clean it up with your alchemy?"

"Good idea." Ed brought his hands together, and then placed them on the bandage. It became white immediately, and covered the wound better, and the nasty stuff from it fell in a little pile by his side. Ed brushed it onto the floor and closed his eyes.

"You should leave your hair black for a while. That way in case we run into trouble, you can pass off as a hostage, and avoid more trouble."

"Wouldn't that get you into more trouble?"

"It wouldn't change my sentence."

"I could say I was a castaway and you saved my life."

"It wouldn't help much."

"I could do the lost child thing, and start crying."

"It wouldn't help much."

"Well, what are the odds of your ship being caught?"

"Not very good, since this is the fastest ship in the Caribbean."

Ed stared at the ceiling. "I'll leave it for now, I guess."

-----------------

After a couple of days, Ed could move without too much difficulty. He still spent most of his time sleeping, but he wasn't dependent on other people for food and such. Soon they arrived at the place Jack had wanted to get to. Ed stayed in his room, understanding that he wouldn't be any help this time around.

A day or so passed by, and Ed was starting to get impatient. He got up and looked in the direction where Jack had left. After a while, he saw something way in the distance. He mentioned this to Mr. Gibbs, who brought a telescope-dealey (I don't know what it's called) and looked at the far-away object. He seemed startled by what he saw, and gave it to Ed. Ed was startled by what he saw too. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, and looked again.

There was Jack, rowing along in a coffin, using a leg for an oar.

Ed didn't know whether to laugh or throw up. He stared blankly through the telescope, and once Jack was close enough, he stared at him without it. Then he decided he was going to be sick, and went over to the other side.

Jack climbed on board after a while, and once Ed's stomach had settled down a bit, he went over to talk with him.

"Did you find it?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what did you find?"

"This," Jack said, unfurling a piece of cloth.

"A picture of a key?"

"Yes."

"And how does that help?"

"Well, now we know what the key looks like."

"You didn't know what it looks like before?"

"No."

"So how did you know to look for a drawing of it?"

"I have my ways."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means I'm not going to tell you, little boy."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT – ugh…" Ed's side suddenly hurt, and he waited for the pain to go away.

"Why don't you go back to bed?"

"Why don't you stop talking to me like you're my dad?" Ed replied, but he still went below deck.

Down there, he heard a noise. It was coming from way down, so Ed decided to check it out, since he was still worried about being caught. He crept down the stairs, and looked around. _This must be the reason he's so weird,_ Ed thought, looking at the barrels of rum.

He ventured further into the room, and saw a dark shadow at the far end of the room. It was human-shaped. "Hello?" he whispered, hoping there wouldn't be a reply.

There was.

"Who are you?" A man's voice replied. There was something vaguely familiar about the voice, and Ed, forgetting that he should be cautious, came closer.

"My name is Edward. Who are you?"

"Edward? What are you doing down here, Edward?"

"I heard something, so…"

"Ah, yes, that would have been me. Tell me, is the captain of this ship busy?"

"You mean Jack? I don't really know…"

"I'll just wait to see him then. So tell me, what is a young boy like you doing on this ship?"

"It's a long story, really, I was separated from my brother in a storm, and Jack found me. Of course we'd met before, but that's why I'm here now."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen. Why?"

"You seem younger."

Ed managed to control his rage at being mistaken for a kid, and replied, "Yeah, I get that a lot. Everybody says that it's because I don't drink milk, but… Hey, wait, what are you doing here in the first place?"

"I have a message for Captain Sparrow."

"A message? Who from?"

"I shouldn't tell you. It would be hard for you to accept."

"I've been through a lot in my life. I'm used to difficulties."

"Davy Jones."

"What? You mean that guy that Jack got this ship from?"

"The very same. How do you know that?"

"He told me. You seem really familiar for some reason."

"Really? Maybe you know my son…"

"What's his name?"

"William Turner."

Ed was quiet. "You're his… dad…? The one who was a member of the crew of this ship?"

"Yes. So you do know him?"

"Yeah, he's a friend of mine… Although I doubt I'll see him again…"

"And why is that?"

"I want to get home. I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'm not from this world."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, my brother and I, along with three other people I know, were in this storm and all of a sudden ended up in a strange world, this one… Here's my proof." Ed pulled up his sleeve, revealing his arm.

"Your arm is metal?"

"Yeah, I lost my arm a few years ago, and this is a replacement. It works just like a real arm, but I don't have any feeling in it, and it was a very long and painful process to get it… ummm… installed, I guess you could say."

"I see. How did you meet my son?"

"Well, when we first came here, my brother and I ended up on the island where he lived, and well… we just sorta… met, I guess."

"How is he doing?"

"Pretty well, last time I saw him. He was going to get married."

"Really? Do you know who the woman is?"

"Yeah, and she's really nice. She's also the daughter of a governor or something like that."

"Really? I've really missed out."

"Oh well, you're better than my father."

"How do you mean?"

"He left us when I was really little, without telling us where he was going, and he didn't even write, and my mother ended up having to run our household by herself, and it was too much for her. She was always waiting for him, and he didn't even come home for her funeral. And if he had been around, I probably wouldn't have lost my arm and leg."

"Your leg?"

"Yeah, it's automail too."

"How sad."

"It is. But I'm glad you did better. Will actually _wanted_ to find you. I don't know if my dad is dead or alive, and I don't really care."

"How did you get separated from your brother?"

"Well, they all managed to return to our world, but I didn't. I was swept overboard at the last minute."

"How terrible. I hope you can get back someday."

"Thanks. So how are you gonna talk to him? I mean, if I tell him there's somebody down here, he'll either think I'm delirious or that you're some freak who wants to kill us all or something like that."

"I may go up to find him later this evening."

"Or I could steal all his rum and make him want to come down here for more."

"That's a good idea."

"Plus he'd probably forget all about his precious rum for a while and maybe that'll get him to act normal."

"I'm not sure it's the rum that makes him act like that."

"Either way, it'll be good to see him having to live without it."

---------------

Ed snuck into Jack's cabin (I giggle at this, because of something where I live) while Jack was steering the ship. He found all the bottles of rum, and hid them very easily. Afterwards, he went back down to where Will's dad was.

"He'll be down soon."

"Great. Thank you."

"No problem. I don't have much to do, since Jack doesn't want me to work the ship, and there's nothing that needs to be fixed right now."

"Fixed?"

"Yeah, I'm an alchemist, so fixing frayed ropes and holes and stuff like that is easy for me."

"An alchemist? But I thought alchemy was magic that had been forbidden by the church?"

"In this world, yes, but in my world, it's more accepted as a science, and it's a major part of the military. In fact, I work for the military as an alchemist."

"Why, may I ask?"

"There's something I have to do, and joining the military gives me access to all kinds of information. I don't like it, but I need to do it."

"What do you have to do that's so important?"

"My brother lost much more than I did when I lost my limbs. I want to restore his body, because the body he has right now… well, it's hard."

"I see."

"All right, I'm gonna go to bed now, see ya around."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. I'm leaving as soon as I give Jack the message."

"Why?"

"Because I'm bound to serve Davy Jones."

"Oh. Well, then, goodbye."

"Goodbye, it was nice meeting you."

"Yeah," Ed waved, and went back to his cabin. He almost just fell onto the bed, but then he realized that wasn't the best idea. He fell asleep very quickly, and didn't even wake up to the shouts of the crew later that night.

----------------

When he woke up, it was to Jack shaking him. He looked around, and it took him a moment to realize that the ship wasn't moving.

"What's up?"

"Come on, we're going ashore."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're getting off the ship and going onto land."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Fine." Ed got up, wincing slightly at the pain in his side, and followed the neurotic Captain off the ship. They were on a seemingly uninhabited island. Ed walked down the shore with the rest of the crew, and began to feel uneasy, as if somebody were watching them.

He mentioned this feeling to Jack, who nodded. "There's probably some people living on this island."

"We should go back to the ship."

"Are you crazy? We can't go back in the open water."

"No, but we can at least defend ourselves more easily."

"Good point."

Jack directed the crew to head back to the ship. They only made it halfway, because there were a lot of natives in the way. Ed, who wasn't wearing his coat, noticed them staring at him the most.

"Ummmm, what should we do now?"

"How should I know?"

"You're the captain, aren't you?"

"Yes, but this is different from sailing a ship."

One of the people spoke, in a weird language that Ed didn't recognize. Jack seemed to be able to figure it out, though, and responded. The two spoke for a while, leaving Ed very confused, and finally Jack told Ed what was going on.

"They think you're a god."

"Why's that?"

"Probably because of your arm. They're offering you hospitality."

"What about everybody else?"

Jack spoke once again to the other man. "He says…"

"What?"

"Well, the basic point of what he's saying is that they're not worthy to live, or something like that."

"Tell him I refuse to believe that he knows more about these people than I do, and that I find it insulting that he even considered killing them without my consent."

"You shouldn't be too demanding. They may think you're taking advantage of them."

"Well, tell them that if anybody in this group is killed by their hands, I will become very angry and use dark magic on them. If they don't believe you, I'll do a little demonstration."

Jack looked at Ed for a moment, and spoke with the man once more. The man seemed to be somewhat frightened by this statement, and took a moment to respond.

"He wants proof."

"All right, I'll give them some proof." Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the sand. A piece of glass began to rise out of the ground between them and the natives, and it had a big effect on them. After the glass was a decent size, Ed stopped, and stood up, looking at the man. After a moment, the man spoke.

"He understands and respects your wishes. He will allow us all to live, but he wants to speak with you alone."

"With you as translator?"

"Yes."

Ed nodded, and the two of them followed the old man into the forest, after Jack gave the crew instructions to stay with the ship. Soon they were deep in the woods.

----------------

Ed wasn't quite sure how everything had happened. He had been talking with the old man, mostly about his incredible magic, when Ed began to feel woozy. He was the only one, it seemed, because Jack seemed to be fine. He had passed out, and then woken up in a little hut, missing his arm and leg.

Jack entered the hut after a bit. Ed could tell that it had taken him some effort to convince the guards outside the hut to let him in.

"What the hell is going on?"

"They decided to remove your otherworldly limbs, apparently having decided that you have no need for such things."

"Can't you tell them to give them back?"

"I tried, but they didn't believe me when I said you needed them."

"Damn it. Here, I want to talk to that old guy. He seemed like the one in charge around here."

"All right," Jack said, and spoke to the guards outside. After a few minutes, the man came into the hut.

Ed started to talk, trying to convince the man to give him back his limbs. When his first argument failed, he thought of his brother, and tried another route.

"I may not need these limbs, but my brother needs me. There's something I need to do for him, and in order to do that, I have to use those limbs. My brother's happiness comes before my own, and you are making it hard for me to please my brother, which displeases me."

He seemed to have gotten the basic point across, because after a while, somebody entered the tent with Ed's automail. It had been taken care of nicely, because it was cleaner when it was returned than when it had been taken off.

Before reattaching his limbs, Ed asked what was expected of him. When he found out, he became very worried. He solved the problem by saying he needed to do something for his brother first, but the man seemed intent on not letting him leave.

-----------------

Ed decided that he really needed the use of his arm. He asked that the man leave, and had Jack put his arm back in.

"What about your leg?"

"I'll put it on later. Right now I think it'll be too much if I do both at once."

Once his arm was in, and he had recovered sufficiently from the pain, he allowed the man to come in again.

He made it perfectly clear that he did not like being held here against his will. He also stated that he would never be able to help his brother if he were stuck here. The old man nodded, and indicated for them to follow him.

Ed wasn't ready to reattach his leg yet, so Jack ended up having to carry him. The old man explained that the rest of the tribe would be angry if they left, so they would have to wait in this spot while he distracted everybody else.

Ed agreed, and it was decided that he should put his leg back on while they waited. Ed stalled, not really wanting to deal with the pain again, but after a while, Jack forcefully attached it, causing Ed to cry out in pain. That caused the natives to come running. When they saw Ed in such pain, they assumed that it was Jack's fault and circled around him.

After a moment, Ed brought his hands together and transmuted a wall all around Jack. He stood up, still in great pain and trembling, and walked over to the wall he had just transmuted. He glared at the people of the tribe, and got rid of the wall. He grabbed hold of Jack's arm, and started walking, leaving the people stunned behind him. After there was some distance between him and them, Ed transmuted a wall behind him and started running.

He didn't make it very far. The wound in his side unleashed another wave of pain that overcame him. He collapsed on the ground. Jack, not wanting his only source of protection to die, picked Ed up and had him ride piggyback as he raced through the trees.

-----------------

Will had just gotten to the island when he heard his name being called from the ship. He looked up, and there was Mr. Gibbs, gesturing him to come up. He scaled the side of the ship quickly.

"Where's Jack?"

"He went inland with that boy and some natives. I don't know when he'll be back."

"What boy?"

Before Mr. Gibbs could answer, they heard a commotion in the forest. Will looked over to see Jack sprinting for the ship, carrying a boy with black hair. They both looked very panic-stricken.

Once they were close enough to the ship, Jack let go of the boy, and they tried to get everybody else to help get the ship out. Halfway through, a little boat arrived, with a dog and two men that Will recognized. They were from the old crew.

Right as the ship was ready to go, and everybody except for the boy were on the ship, a group of people came out of the forest, running very fast. Will was working on the deck and didn't see the boy, but all of a sudden the ship was in the water, moving. The boy climbed up after that, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Glad that's over," he said, and walked over to Jack. Will looked at him. There was something very familiar about him, but he couldn't quite place it. The boy spoke to Jack for a moment, and then went below deck. Jack noticed Will at that time, and walked over to him.

"It's nice to see you again. What have you been up to?"

"I was arrested for helping you."

"But now you're here. And how did that happen?"

"Elizabeth was arrested too." Will explained the situation to Jack, and also gave him a message from one of the women in Tortuga, a slap on the face. Jack nodded, and went back to steer the ship, ignoring Will completely. Will, not very happy with Jack, followed him.

"Are you ignoring me?"

"No, in fact, I'd like you go check on that boy, he seemed a little out of it."

"Who is he?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just go, I'm worried about him."

Will, realizing that arguing any more would be pointless at the moment, went down to where the boy was. He found him staring at the dog, which had managed to sneak aboard. "I know what you're thinking."

"Woof!"

"Yeah, all you dogs are the same. I can see right through you."

"Woof?"

"But I'm not going to let it happen this time. You're going down!" The boy made a move towards the dog. Within a moment, they were both on the floor, the dog sitting on the boy, who finally noticed he had an audience.

"What are you looking at?" he asked, glaring at Will.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm perfectly fine. I'm just spending some quality time with my friend here." Will walked over, and the dog got off of the boy, who stood up. "Stupid dog," he muttered, dusting himself off. He finally looked up at Will, and seemed startled to see him.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked, staring at him.

"I should be asking the same of you. Why is somebody like you on a pirate ship?"

"I – oh, right, the hair…" The boy clapped his hands together and placed them on his head. Will watched in amazement as the color changed to blonde, and he finally realized who the boy was.

"Weren't you supposed to be going home?"

"Something came up."

"But why are you here?"

"Because if I went ashore, I'd be arrested."

"You too?"

"And my brother, but that's not a problem since my brother made it back fine."

"But not you?"

"No, I'm the only one that didn't make it back."

"How did that happen?"

"I was careless. But what do you mean, you too?"

"Elizabeth and I were arrested for helping Jack. There's also a warrant out for Norrington."

"What, that stuck-up Commodore with the stupid wig?"

"Everybody in the higher ranks of the navy wears those wigs, and he also resigned."

"Why?"

"I believe it was because his reputation had been soiled…"

"No, why have you been arrested, and what are you doing here?"

"I have to get something from Jack, in order to free Elizabeth and myself."

"Oh, I get it. So they're just letting you run free?"

"Yes, but they still have Elizabeth."

"What'll happen if you don't get whatever it is you need to get?"

"She'll be executed."

"What? Why the hell would somebody go that far just to get something? That's so…" Ed trailed off, clutching his side.

"What's wrong?"

"I was freaking shot a couple weeks ago, and it doesn't want to heal very fast."

"It might be infected."

"I know, and that's why I clean off the bandage every chance I get."

"With alchemy?"

"Yeah."

"That might not be enough."

"I realize that. Look, I'm tired and sore. I'm going to bed."

----------------

Yes, I realize that half the stuff in here is complete and utter Scheiße, but that's okay. It's a fanfic based on a movie trilogy that's based off a Disney theme park ride. XD

And I apologize for the dialogue being hard to follow, but as I said, this is the first story I ever wrote, I just suck at updating, and I lack the energy to edit any of it. -sigh-

And… that's pretty much it. I would also like to note that I have a poster of Jack Sparrow right above my pillow. It's glorious.

Once again, I SUCK AT UPDATING.


	11. Chapter 11

Yeah, having like twenty different fanfics going at once is really not a good idea… But hey, that's just how my mind works. I'll go strong on one fic for a while, and then it goes away and I can't concentrate on anything except for another fic. And sometimes I can't even write at all. That's why I wish I had something better than just iMovie. I also have art. :D

If I could do links on here I'd post pics. Maybe I'll just be sneaky and trick the system.

---------------

Ed didn't get to sleep for long. After a couple hours, Jack came down and woke him up. "Come on, we're getting off."

"It's not gonna end up with my arm being taken off, is it?"

"No, come on."

"Do you really need me to come?"

"Do you want me to leave you here all alone?"

"Fine."

"You should wear your coat. It wouldn't be good if people saw your arm."

"But it's way too hot…"

"It's not that hot."

"Yes, it is."

"Well you need to find a way to hide the fact that your arm's made of metal."

"Fine." Ed took his coat and transmuted part of it to look like a bandage covering his arm entirely. "That good enough for you?"

"Yes. Now come on, everybody's waiting."

-----------------

While riding upriver to some unknown place, Ed lurked in one of the boats, vaguely listening to Will talking to Mr. Gibbs. They were pretty much talking about what Jack had told him earlier, but then Mr. Gibbs brought up something else. The Kraken. Ed listened more intently about this, finally understanding why they had gone ashore so quickly after the meeting with Will's dad.

Finally they stopped, and a few of the crew, along with Ed and Will, went with Jack into a small hut. Inside there was a woman. Ed stood in the background as the others spoke with the woman, and looked around. He watched the monkey leave through a window, where he saw a shadow through the window, accompanied by a face, but it soon disappeared, leaving Ed to wonder about it.

After a while, the woman turned her attention to Ed. She looked into his eyes, making Ed feel _very_ awkward. "What a lovely shade of gold. It goes well with your hair."

"Um, thanks…"

"What happened to your arm?"

"Um, well…" Ed was quiet for a while, trying to think of a good story, but nothing came to him. Once he realized that there was no chance of avoiding the question, he unraveled the fabric, revealing his arm.

"Your arm was turned to metal?"

Ed stared at the woman, not quite knowing what to say. "Um, no, not exactly…"

"He lost his arm a few years ago. That's just a replacement," Jack stated.

"Yeah, what he said," Ed muttered, trying to back up from the crazy lady.

"And how exactly did you come to have a metal replacement arm?"

Ed was quiet, wishing that this person would stop asking him difficult questions. Finally Jack answered for him again, saying that Ed was from a different world, which was contained much more advanced technology. For the first time, Ed was incredibly grateful for Jack's presence. The woman stared at Ed for a while longer, and then turned away and went to do something else. After a while, she gave Jack a jar of dirt, whose purpose was unknown to Ed, who hadn't been paying attention, and they left.

-----------------

Ed was tired of sitting around doing nothing. The ship, thanks to his alchemy, was in very good condition, and he still wasn't allowed to do anything that could cause him to fall overboard, which was pretty much everything other than fixing the ship with alchemy. He was very bored, so when Jack asked if he wanted to go with Will to find the key, he agreed, hoping that the boredom would end.

They went over to the shipwreck, and took a look around. Ed saw some people who were still alive, and called Will over. They tried to talk to the man, and Ed transmuted the man's clothes into a decent bandage for his wounds, but the man was babbling incoherently.

After a while, Ed got the feeling that they weren't alone. He looked around, and saw that there were strange people around. They seemed to be human, but they looked like they belonged in a sea monster movie. Ed didn't struggle when they took them captive; so he was able to somewhat understand what was going on. Will, on the other hand, was knocked out, and only woke up when another of the crazy-looking people came towards them.

Ed sat still, and listened to the man, whom he realized was Davy Jones. He watched as they killed a man who refused to serve them, and became a little worried. He hoped the same thing wouldn't happen to them. Finally, Davy Jones came up to the two of them, and paused. "You are neither dead nor dying. Why are you here?"

Ed left the whole talking-to-octopus-man part to Will, who replied with what Jack told him to say. After a moment, Davy Jones noticed the ship in the distance, and disappeared.

-----------------

Jack was trying to negotiate with Davy Jones. He wasn't having much luck, and finally he settled for the deal with the 100 souls, mentioning that he already had one.

"Just one?"

"The younger boy would be of no use to you. He's clumsy, and he'd drown if he fell overboard."

"He can't swim?"

"Not exactly. Besides, he's already seen hell, so you can't frighten him into working for you."

"And how is it that he's seen hell?"

A voice behind Davy Jones startled them both. "I don't see how that matters, but if you need to know, I tried to bring somebody back to life and failed." Ed was standing there, arms crossed, his right arm reflecting the light of the one torch that hadn't been extinguished.

Jack was more startled to see Ed than Davy Jones. "How did you get over here?"

Ed turned and pointed towards the ship he had come from. There was an ice bridge running between the two ships. "I transmuted an ice bridge. Duh."

"Transmuted?" Davy Jones asked, facing the boy while Jack made strange gestures behind his back.

"Yeah, I'm an alchemist. Is there a problem with that?"

Davy Jones turned back to Jack. "Useless, eh?"

"Oh, right, I forgot about the alchemy. Erm…"

"I'll take him too. That leaves 98."

"Ninety-eight what?" Ed asked. His question was ignored, and he was taken back to the Flying Dutchman, amidst protests from both Jack and Ed.

---------------

Jack set sail for Tortuga, in order to find more souls, and succeeded in finding four not-so-worthy sailors, but perfect for the deal. There were also two others who ended up joining the crew, Norrington and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was able to use the compass to point to where the chest was. I'd write more, but I'm too damn lazy. XD

--------------

Ed was once again forbidden to do anything other than fix stuff, so he was standing on the deck, watching everything that was going on. He could hear creepy organ music coming from the captain's cabin, which added to the dark mood of the ship. He looked for Will, and saw that he was pulling a rope with somebody else, who happened to be Will's daddy.

Ed wasn't surprised when Bootstrap let go of the rope in shock, so he was the only one who didn't move when the cannon came crashing down. Davy Jones went by him, and since all attention was directed at Will, Ed fixed the cannon, and walked so that he was just behind Davy Jones. Just when Bootstrap was about to whip his son, Ed spoke up.

"Aren't you overreacting a bit? I mean, it's not like it did any damage," Ed said, pointing over his shoulder at the newly fixed cannon. This caught everybody except for Will by surprise. Davy Jones looked incredulously at Ed. "How did-"

"I'm an alchemist, did you forget that already?" Ed asked, ignoring the whispers of the crew.

"Ah, yes. Well, I suppose we can let it go this once, but the next time something breaks, even if you fix it, whoever was responsible for breaking it will be punished."

Ed breathed a sigh of relief at this, and he could tell Will was doing the same. He followed Will and his father below deck, and stood in the background, ready to intervene if a fight broke out. None did, and he was glad to see that. At least Will had a better father than he did.

---------------

Ed was really worried. He wanted to get back to his own world, so that he could at least be with his brother, but so far he didn't have a way. Plus, since he had revealed that he could freeze water and escape, he had been locked inside a cabin. The cabin wasn't that much of an obstacle, but the rumored deadliness of the Kraken was enough to keep Ed from trying to escape. He didn't really want to be eaten by a monster.

In order to prevent complete boredom, he began transmuting his arm into different kinds of weapons, testing each one out before moving onto the next. This got old after a while, and his side was aching again. He decided to take off the bandage and look at the wound. Seeing it caused him to groan. There was something growing on it.

He dedicated his time to figuring out what the strange substance was, and didn't even notice when Davy Jones entered the cabin. Ed figured out the components of the mystery substance, and got rid of it. Right about then, he noticed he was being watched.

"How is it that you can do that?"

"What, alchemy?"

"Yes."

"I've spent around ten years studying it. Plus, I've also gained 'true knowledge,' which is what allows me to transmute without a circle."

"And how did you gain that knowledge?"

"By attempting human transmutation, I arrived at the doors of truth, but that knowledge came at a price," Ed replied, with his hand on his leg.

"Your arm?"

"No, it was my leg at first. I wasn't alone in my attempt, my younger brother was right there with me. He lost his entire body. I paid the passage fee again in order to bring his soul back, and bonded it to a suit of armor."

"And where is your brother?"

"Where I want to be right now, back in our world."

"You're from a different world?"

"Yes." Ed was silent for a while, thinking about his brother. When he finally spoke up again, it was in a very quiet voice. "It's my fault."

"What is?"

"It was my idea to bring back our mother. I dragged Al into it, and we both paid a price. Now, he's trapped in a body that has no feeling. He can't do anything other than talk and move around. He can't eat, sleep, cry, or feel pain, and it's all my fault."

When Davy Jones didn't speak, Ed continued. "I have to get back to him. I need to set things right, no matter what."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"I don't know yet. We've been trying to find a way for three years, ever since I joined the military."

"Why did you join the military?"

"Because, as a dog of the military, I have access to incredible amounts of information and research funds. I may have to follow the military's orders, but I'd rather do that than see my brother living the way he has been."

"How much would you give for your brother?"

"I've already given up my arm for him, and I would have given more, if I'd had to."

"So if I were able to get his body back, you'd be willing to serve me?"

"Do you know anything about human transmutation or the philosopher's stone?"

"No."

"Then you can't help me. The only way I can help my brother is to continue researching. I have to get back."

"I wonder, would you have really given up anything else for your brother?"

"Our mother is dead, and our father is a bastard who left his family alone and never kept in touch. My brother's the only person I have left of my family."

"So you were afraid of being left alone?"

"Part of me was. Al and I have been through too much together. If one of us dies, the other's life wouldn't be worth living. Wait, why do you even care? You don't seem the type to take pity on people."

"There's something I don't understand. Why are you so desperate to return your brother to a mortal body? He has something many people wish for, an immortal body. Would you be willing to take that away from him?"

"Just as I thought, you have no idea how painful it is for him. There's nothing good about that body."

"I see," Davy Jones said, and exited the cabin, leaving Ed alone, but not before smacking him over the head for being so out of character.

------------------

Ed, Will, and Bootstrap were all sitting in the cabin, waiting for night, when they would try to take the key away from Davy Jones. They were quiet, not wanting to speak of what they were going to do. Bootstrap was the one to break the silence.

"Wasn't your hair black before?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it was. I had to dye it so I wouldn't be arrested for something I didn't do."

"How did you do that?"

"Like this," Ed said, and he found something he could use to turn his hair black again.

"So, you can do just about anything with alchemy, huh?"

"Not really. What can be transmuted is limited by a person's knowledge, and also by the resources at hand."

"I see."

"Is it almost time?"

"Yes. Let's go."

Ed and Will snuck into the captain's cabin. Davy Jones was sleeping. They took their time trying to get the key out, and finally Ed managed to take it. They went back outside, where Bootstrap was waiting. He started to get one of the boats into the water. Before he could do anything, however, Ed noticed something. He motioned for them to stop moving, and they stood in silence as Ed peered into the darkness.

He was very startled by what he saw. "Al…?" he asked, not daring to believe it.

"What?"

"I just saw my brother. He was standing up there…" Ed pointed towards the bow, where he was sure he had just seen a very familiar face.

"That's impossible. You said that your brother had made it back to your world."

"But I just saw him, I swear!"

"Maybe you were imagining it. There's no way a suit of armor would go unnoticed on this ship," Bootstrap said.

"No, it wasn't the armor, it was the Al from before…"

"You mean his real body?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I saw it."

"But why would it be here?"

"I don't know, but it is."

"Look, you've been through a lot in the past couple days."

"Are you saying I imagined it?"

"That's the only logical explanation."

Ed was about to go over and look when he heard a yell.

"I think he woke up," Ed said, looking nervously over towards the door to the cabin.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Will asked, beginning to sound mad.

"Don't worry, I have an idea," Ed said, looking for something metal. He found something, and transmuted it into a key just before Davy Jones came storming out onto the deck. He hid the fake key in his pocket and waited.

Davy Jones was mad. He came storming over, and Ed realized that the majority of the crew had surrounded them. He had to be really careful now.

"Which of you took the key?"

"What?" Will asked, trying to sound innocent.

"I know it was one of you two, and you have more of a reason to take it," Davy Jones growled, pointing at Will, who shifted uncomfortably. Before anybody could do anything to Will, Ed stepped in front of him, pulling the fake key out of his pocket.

"Is this what you're talking about? Shouldn't you be more careful with it?" Ed said, looking at the key. Before Davy Jones could do anything, Ed transmuted the fake key into something else and tossed it to him.

-----------------

Everybody in the crew was shocked at what Ed had done. Ed realized he was about to be killed, and got very worried as the crewmembers came closer. Before they did anything to Ed, though, Davy Jones started laughing. Ed stared at him, not quite expecting that reaction.

"I have to thank you, boy. Now I don't have to worry about anybody opening the chest," Davy Jones said, still laughing. Will, who hadn't seen Ed transmute the fake key to begin with, looked at Ed in shock.

"Now, is there something you want, in exchange for helping me?"

"I want you to let us go. We never wanted to be here in the first place."

"Fine. The two of you are free to go. I'll drop you off at the nearest port."

"Fair enough. Only, there's a problem with that."

"What is that?"

"Apparently, we're criminals. I don't really want to be arrested and hanged, that would make it really hard for me to get my brother's body back."

"That's too bad. If you didn't want to be in that situation, you shouldn't have gone and associated yourselves with pirates. However, I will allow you to get off on the nearest island. It's uninhabited, but I'm sure you can find a way to deal with that."

"Fine."

"Take these two below for now. I'll let them know when it's time for them to get off."

---------------

"Why did you do that? Now we'll never be able to open that chest!" Will said, furious with Ed. They were alone in a cabin that had been locked from the outside.

"What are you talking about?" Ed asked, keeping his expression as calm as possible.

"I'm talking about you destroying our only hope to kill Davy Jones!"

"Oh, are you talking about that key?"

"Yes, I am! You…" Will trailed off at the sight of the real key in Ed's hand. "I'm not talking to you anymore," he said, and sat down smiling.

"That's just fine with me," Ed replied, sitting down next to him. They had made it this far. Now all they needed to do was find the chest.

They ended up being left on an island the next day. Once the _Dutchman_ had disappeared, Ed set off for the shade of the trees. The island wasn't very big, but that didn't matter to Ed. He knew how to survive in conditions like these, and he had the advantage of being able to use alchemy.

The first thing he did was to make a signal. He didn't know what had possessed him to do that, but he had a good feeling that somebody aboard the _Black Pearl_ would sight it. He was right, and soon Jack, Norrington, and Elizabeth were welcoming the two of them. Will was very startled to see Elizabeth, and Ed was startled to see Norrington not looking like a stuck-up jerk.

Nobody seemed to pay attention to him, and it took Ed a moment to realize that his hair was still black. He wondered why Davy Jones hadn't said anything about it. He didn't have long to think about it, because Elizabeth finally recognized him.

"Edward? What are you doing here?"

"That's kind of a long story."

"Why is your hair black?"

"Oh, I wanted to go for a completely different image. Do you like it?" Ed asked, a little sarcastically.

"It doesn't really seem to fit you."

"Good to know." Ed clapped his hands together, and turned his hair back to its original color.

--------------

All I can say is I'm glad authors improve over time. But no worries, soon we'll have gotten to the point where I began writing this fic after a very long break, and thus the quality will (hopefully) jump.


	12. Extra, part one

Since I seem to be physically unable to post the actual story, I thought I'd post this little side-story I've been working on. It can take place at any time during the actual story, since it's mostly a flashback, and all it really requires is Ed and Jack being on the same ship… This one will be a few chapters long, and I'll just post them sporadically throughout the fic if I don't get it done before I continue posting the actual fic…

------------

"You know, I've known you longer than you'd think," Jack said to Ed as he sat down next to him. The alchemist was pouting once again, and he seemed to need some form of cheering up. Since Jack's usual wit was having no effect, he decided to take another route.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed asked after a while, lifting his head only to glare at Jack before burying his head in his arms again.

"Well, when it comes to the first time I met you…"

"In the Port Royal prison."

"Well… no. This was before that. Back when you were too young to keep your pants clean, if you get my meaning."

Ed scowled. "If this is some story about how you saved my life when I was a two-year-old, you can just forget about it."

"No," Jack replied. "Not quite. Come on, there's nothing else for us to do around here."

Ed was silent for a moment before he leaned his head against the nearby railing. "Do whatever you want. I don't really care."

"Good." And with that, Jack finished tying Ed's hands to the ship and began his tale, ignoring Ed's angry protests as he recalled those short days between his acquiring of the _Pearl_ and losing it to Barbossa…

-----------

"We need to get supplies sometime, you know," Barbossa stated once again to Jack as he followed the Captain to the deck.

"Yes, yes, I know. But I don't want to stop _here._ I don't think the people much care for me around here."

"That's because you've got yourself a reputation around these parts," Barbossa replied. "If you don't announce your presence to the entire town, nothing will go wrong."

"You sure? I don't like that idea."

"It's the only idea we've got. There are no other ports for days, and there's a storm brewing, even I can tell that."

"Very well. We'll stop at this port, but _you_ do all the talking."

---------------

Ten hours and several swordfights later, Jack and Hector found themselves standing in front of the local Governor, a pompous ass known as John Smith. Despite his generic name, Smith was a cunning leader, and a cruel one at that. He stared down at the two pirates with contempt.

"Well, well. Look what we have here. Now then, what exactly are you doing here?" he asked, his voice matching his expression.

"Simply a trip to gather supplies," Barbossa answered. Jack decided he'd let him talk.

"What, pirates making port in my town? No, no, that just won't do. You see, I have a reputation to consider, and you and your crew are ruining it just by coming here."

"Sorry about that, but we have to eat too, you know," Jack said. After all, it wasn't like they were pillaging this town. Too many soldiers for that.

"And you have to avoid getting caught, otherwise you will be hanged. But of course, I'm not much for senseless violence. Perhaps we can come to an agreement."

"And what would that be?" Barbossa asked.

Smith stood and paced around the two. "You see, there was an accident the other day. My family was coming to join me here when they were attacked by your kind. My son was onboard that ship."

"Your son?" Jack asked.

"Well, adopted son," Smith corrected. "Such a beautiful boy, too. His eyes and hair are a stunning shade of gold, and… I would hate to find that he is dead. This is my deal for you," Smith continued, stopping to face the two pirates. "I will give you two, along with five of your crew, one of my slowest ships. The rest of your crew, along with the _Pearl,_ will stay here. You will find my son, and you will bring him back to me. Do so, and I will return your ship and crew to you and let you leave this place in peace."

"And if we don't?" Jack asked nervously.

"Fire is a convenient tool. It can destroy both wood and flesh," Smith replied simply. "Do we have an accord?"

Jack exchanged glances with his First Mate before nodding. "We will find this son of yours."

"Good choice. Remember, you have ten days. If you don't return by then, I will set the _Pearl_ on fire, with you and your crew still in it."

"Well, what if we find him soon enough and are on our way back on the tenth day?" Jack asked.

"You see, that's why I am giving you my slowest ship. You can be easily overtaken by one of my other ships, and they will bring you back. I will decide then whether your lives should be spared."

Jack looked about them. They were completely surrounded by soldiers of every kind, and most of them looked like too much trouble to fight against. No doubt his crew was in the same situation. He decided it was time to make a deal.

-----------------

"It seems a dull errand to search for a child," Barbossa said as they set sail. They were headed east, to an uninhabited island nearby, where John Smith had said the ship carrying his child had wrecked. If his son had survived, he was likely hiding in the wilderness, and according to Smith, there weren't any soldiers available to conduct a thorough search.

"Maybe so, but I'd rather run a dull errand than be hanged," Jack replied. "Wouldn't you?"

"If the child we're searching for truly is who his 'father' says he is, then yes. But Jack, this is John Smith we're talking about. The only difference between him and us is his title. Besides, I don't quite buy his story."

"Which part?" Jack asked.

"Why, if he has ships available to track us down if we don't return on time, would he not be able to send soldiers after his son? Wouldn't finding this boy be his top priority?"

Jack put away his telescope and turned to the helm. "You have a point there. Even so, it's not our place to argue with his decisions. We just find the boy, drop him off, and leave."

"Have ye considered that he might betray us?"

Jack blinked. He hadn't thought of that. "Of course I have," he said before walking off. "And that's why I'm going to come up with a plan in case he does."


	13. Chapter 12

Well, it seems I _can_ update this story after all. Enjoy the _real_ story. I think it sucks, but that's okay. It was good at the time.

------------

They made it to the island where the chest was. Ed went to the shore with the others, but stayed a distance away, not wanting to deal with a power struggle. He gave the key to Will, and sat down with the Pintel and Ragetti.

After a while, Ed noticed something in the distance. It was a ship, and before he could get a good look at it, it disappeared underwater. This was very worrisome to Ed, who had a pretty good idea of who it was. He ran to tell the others, but the three men were fighting, and Elizabeth was trying to get them to stop.

"What are they doing? Although I have a pretty good idea…"

"They're fighting over that stupid chest."

"Jeez, are they stupid? We have to do something. I just saw the _Flying Dutchman_, which means that we're gonna have company really soon."

"What?"

"Should I break up the fight?"

"Please."

Ed clapped his hands together, and placed them on the ground. The sand around each of the men came up and trapped them. Once he was sure they couldn't move at all, Ed walked over with Elizabeth.

"Jeez, you people are pathetic. You find something valuable, and spend all your time fighting over it. Now, I have some interesting news. Davy Jones and his crew are on their way here. You should stop fighting and try to find a solution."

"And what do you propose we do?" Will asked. "If we go back into open water, we could be attacked by the Kraken. If we stay here, we'll have to deal with the crew. Besides, doesn't he think you destroyed the key?"

"Are you stupid? He saw right through that act. Why else do you think he left us on a deserted island? Plus, he probably knew that we'd run into him," Ed said, pointing at Jack. "He wanted to catch us in the act!"

"So now what?"

"I'd say, take the heart out of the chest and hide it. Isn't that what that jar of dirt is for?"

"Oh, right, almost forgot about that."

"But what good would that do us?"

"Man, do I have to explain everything?" Ed spent the next few minutes outlying a plan, and once he got everybody to agree with his plan, he let the three men go.

--------------

Once they were completely recovered from the sand, the Jack, Will, and Norrington continued their fight. Ed and Elizabeth quickly removed the heart from the chest and put it in the jar.

They returned to where the men were fighting only to find out that they had moved further inland. Ed and Elizabeth, along with Pintel and Ragetti, ran after them. Before they entered the trees, Ed looked back. There was the _Flying Dutchman_, and Ed could make out the crew running towards them.

Once they were in the cover of the trees, they stopped running for a moment. Ed signaled for everybody to scatter, and he took the chest and ran along the edge of the trees back towards the boat. Once he was sure that nobody was still out in the open, Ed ran for the boat. He figured that nobody would notice.

Halfway there, he tripped on a very large rock, and landed on his stomach. This caused his side to erupt in pain once again, and he waited for the pain to go away before he moved. When he sat up, he noticed that he wasn't alone. There happened to be several of the weird-looking crew around him.

Ed, not wanting to go back on that nasty-looking ship, decided to fight. He brought his hands together and placed them on the ground, causing a huge wave of sand to fly around him. He used the cover to get out of the circle, and transmuted his arm into a blade. He kept them away from him for a while, then he ran for the boat, where everybody else happened to be.

Before Ed could get to the boat, he felt a searing pain in his left arm, and saw blood seeping through his shirt. He stopped running, pressed his hand against the wound, and looked around. One of Davy Jones's crew had pulled a gun out, and a bullet from it had pierced Ed's arm.

All of a sudden, Ed's strength left him. He fell to his knees, still holding his arm. Before he could get back up, Ed felt several strong hands grab hold of him. Ed struggled against it, but he stopped when pain erupted in his side once more. Ed looked at his captors, and big surprise, he had been caught by sea-monster-people once again.

-----------------

Since he was losing a lot of blood, Ed used alchemy to make a bandage out of his sleeve. One of the crew didn't realize Ed wasn't trying to fight, and he knocked Ed out when he saw the flash.

Ed woke up on the deck of the _Flying Dutchman_, with Davy Jones looking down at him. It took a moment for Ed to realize that he was smiling. Ed managed to get to his feet, fearing the worst. When he looked out to sea, those fears were confirmed. There was the _Black Pearl_, and there was the Kraken. It was Ed's first time seeing the fearsome creature, and he watched in horror as it disappeared underwater, taking the ship with it.

Ed felt himself being filled with uncontrollable rage. He turned around, and tried to attack Davy Jones. Before he could reach him, though, two people grabbed his arms and pulled him back. Ed struggled against their grips, shouting profanities. He nearly broke free before one of them brought a knee into his side.

Ed fell to the ground, tears in his eyes. He didn't know whether he was crying from the pain or from the bitter despair that had gripped him. Either way, he felt pathetic. After a moment, he looked up. Davy Jones was inches away from his face.

"Did you really think I'd let them escape alive?"

Ed didn't have anything to say, so he just glared. Davy Jones smirked (can he even do that?) and stood up. Ed felt hands on his arms, pulling him to a standing position. He saw the chest, with the key in the lock. When Davy Jones found it to be empty, he turned on Ed, whose mind was still on the people he had known on the ship.

"Where is it?" he asked.

Ed stood his ground. He'd put up with this for long enough. "What makes you think I know?" he replied.

"You were on the island with Sparrow."

"That doesn't mean I know where it is. Why don't you ask Jack? Oh, wait, I guess you can't now… oh well, too bad for you," Ed remarked. This comment earned him a few nice bruises, since Davy Jones didn't approve of it. Ed ended up being taken to the brig, and his arms were tied firmly to the bars.

-------------------

Ed wasn't able to think clearly. Part of it was because he was upset about the day's events, but it was also because his side and arm hurt. Since he had been tied up so tightly, the metal bars were digging into his skin, making the pain several times worse.

Ed looked up when he heard footsteps. Since he didn't know what would happen to him, he was worried. He didn't have to worry, since it was Bootstrap Bill Turner who had come.

He came into the cell and began to untie Ed. "You should consider yourself lucky."

Ed couldn't help being sarcastic. "Really? And why's that?"

"Because you're an alchemist. You have powers that most people would kill for. That's the reason you're alive right now. You may have to spend the rest of your days on this ship, but you're still alive."

"Just being alive won't get my brother's body back. I'd rather die than be stuck somewhere, knowing that I won't be able to help my brother at all, knowing that he could be stuck in that body forever…"

Ed's left arm was loose now. He looked at the wound and groaned. It had grown in size due to the rough metal rubbing against it. Once his other arm was freed, he got rid of the blade and pulled off the bandage.

The wound was clean, and not incredibly deep. It would heal fairly quickly, assuming he kept it as clean as possible. He tried to redo the bandage without using alchemy, but it was hard. Ed only had the use of his right hand, which wasn't of much use when it came to situations like this one.

After a while, Bootstrap took over for Ed. Ed waited in silence. He still didn't know what he was going to do. After another moment, a question came up in his mind. He had no idea why he had been untied. His question was answered in a moment, when he was pulled to his feet.

"Come on, I have to take you to the Captain," Bootstrap said, leading Ed through the ship. Ed followed silently, still lost in his thoughts.

----------------

Will sat in a small boat with the other survivors, heading to Tia Dalma's house. He thought about Jack, but he also remembered somebody else. He had seen Ed being caught by the crew of Davy Jones. Ed had been brave, and he had been the voice of reason when nobody else was thinking clearly. Now he was a prisoner on the _Flying Dutchman_.

Will wasn't the only one who was concerned about Ed. He could tell the others were worried about him, even Pintel and Ragetti. As they approached the hut, Will realized something else. What about Alphonse? Would he be able to live without his brother? And what about their goals?

They finally arrived, and they had a toast for Jack. -blah blah blah, they all want to save Jack and then Barbosa comes out and acts all high and mighty-

-more boring stuff, they make a plan and leave the hut-

"Just so you know, we're going to make a quick stop. It'll be slightly out of the way, but I think you'll find that it's worth it," Barbosa said.

---------------

Ed stood his ground as Davy Jones walked up to him. He was sick of being pushed around, and he was sick of having so many things delaying his return to his brother. At this point in time, Ed was almost ready to jump overboard and try swimming.

There were two others in the room, each watching Ed closely. Ed didn't care about them. He wasn't going to try anything stupid this time.

"I suppose you still want to get back to your world, right?"

Ed didn't feel the need to respond to this. The answer was painfully obvious.

"Let's make a deal, then. I'll get you back to your brother, and once you succeed in your quest, you'll work for me."

Ed shook his head. "No."

"So you'll just let your brother think you're gone forever? I'm not going to let you leave this ship any time soon, you know."

"I realize that."

"You're a fool, boy."

"I know that, too. I've been reminded of my foolishness every time I look at this." Ed pointed at his arm. "And every time I look at my brother's empty shell of a body."

"Don't try to make me pity you."

"I'm not. I'm the one who messed up. Because of that, it's my job to find a way to get us back to normal, and nobody else's."

"Hmm. So you actually take responsibility for your actions. That's more than I can say for Sparrow."

Ed winced inwardly at this comment, but he tried not to show any emotion. He felt like he had to show he was strong. "The main principle of alchemy is equivalent exchange. You can't expect to gain something without first sacrificing something."

Then came the moment Ed was least expecting. Davy Jones smiled. Not a creepy smile, although it wasn't even close to looking friendly. "I like your determination. Most people would have given up in a situation like yours."

Ed could hardly believe what he was hearing. To him, this seemed very out of character for Davy Jones. If this was for real, then Ed had a chance. He tried not to get his hopes too high.

Davy Jones continued to speak. "Don't think that I'm going to give you any sympathy, though. You tricked me, and you will pay for that."

"How's that?"

"Take him below. I'm sure he'll understand once he sees who's down there."

--------------

Ed was thrown unceremoniously into a small cabin. He landed flat on his face as the door slammed behind him. Once again, this caused his wounds to burn.

Once he got over the pain, Ed sat up. He looked around, not knowing what to expect. What he found was an incredible shock.

"Ed?" the voice came from a young girl a couple inches taller than Ed. She was wearing a full-body suit, with the upper half tied around her waist. She had a black tube top, and her hair was held back by a red bandana. On the floor beside her was a toolbox.

"Winry? What are you doing here?"

"How am I supposed to know?" she replied. "Last thing I remember, I was cleaning up after installing someone's automail, and then… I woke up here…"

"Are you okay?"

Winry nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. But…"

"I don't know how I got here either. And

Winry looked at Ed. "Hey, since we'll probably be stuck here for a while, I should check on your arm."

Ed stood up. "It's fine, you don't need to look at it."

"Oh, come on, what else are we going to do?"

Ed relented. He sat down on the bunk and let Winry inspect his arm.

"Wow, it's not broken."

"Why did you think it would be?"

"Because you have a tendency to break things."

"No, I don't!" Ed winced as Winry pulled on his arm.

"Well, everything checks out with the arm. Should I check on the leg?"

"Well, I haven't lost the ability to walk yet."

"That doesn't mean anything."

Ed decided not to argue with Winry. Instead, he waited patiently until Winry approved of his leg's condition. "Wow, you've been taking pretty good care of it, huh?"

"Of course I have. It's not like I have time to go to Resembool to get it repaired."

"You just don't want to visit, do you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, Ed, you're so heartless…"

Before Ed could reply, the door opened, and Bill Turner came in. Ed pulled his pant leg down and crossed his legs. "What's up?"

"I want to talk to you."

Ed got up and left the room, looking back at Winry. Strangely, she didn't seem worried.

"Who is that girl?"

"Her name's Winry Rockbell. Her house was very close to ours growing up."

"So she's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, she's like a sister to us."

"She's that close to you?"

Ed looked at the closed door behind him. "She's the one who gave me a leg to stand on."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, she made this," Ed said, pointing to his arm. "Why is this so important to you?"

Bill Turner looked at Ed as if he was asking if the sky was blue. "You haven't figured it out yet?"

"Figured what out?" Ed asked, still not quite getting the point.

"Think about it. Davy Jones said you still needed to be punished, and then you find out that your childhood friend just happens to be here."

Ed's eyes widened as it finally dawned on him. "What am I supposed to do, then?"

"I don't know yet."

"Ah, jeez, like my life isn't hard enough as it is," Ed muttered under his breath.

"Listen, don't worry about it for now. Just try to concentrate on something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. You can figure that one out on your own."

Ed groaned. This definitely wasn't his idea of a good time. When Bill Turner had nothing more to say, Ed returned to the room and collapsed on the bed next to Winry.

"Ed? What's wrong?"

Ed sat up. "A bunch of stuff."

"Like what?"

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"Did someone die?"

Ed looked down. He didn't want Winry to worry about him, but he felt that she had to know the truth. "Yeah. A bunch of people died. Most of them were my friends, too."

Winry looked at Ed in shock. "I'm sorry."

"For what? It's not like it's your fault."

"No, but you still have to deal with the pain."

Ed looked up at the ceiling. "That's right. And I don't even have Al around to help me."

"Where is he?"

"As far as I know, he made it back safely to our world. I almost did, too, but something went wrong."

"Don't worry, Ed. You're going to make it back."

"How do you know?"

Winry shrugged. "I don't know why, but that's just what I think."

Ed sighed. "I hope you're right…"

Winry sat on the bed, lost in her thoughts. Ed was asleep, which didn't surprise her one bit. It was something she had grown used to over the years.

She wondered what was going to happen to her. She hadn't been conscious when she arrived on the ship, so she didn't know anybody except for Ed and the man who had come in earlier.

After a while, the door opened. Winry was fairly proud of herself for not freaking out when Davy Jones entered. Of course, she had seen that other guy, and Ed had told her about Davy Jones, but it was still rather surprising to see somebody with a tentacle-beard standing in front of her.

He closed the door behind him and walked toward the bed. He looked with some interest at Ed, who was still sound asleep, then he turned to Winry.

"So you know him."

Winry nodded, not really knowing what to say. (I don't blame her. Davy Jones creepy XD) "We've been friends since we were born."

"Along with his brother, I assume?"

"Yeah, we've always been together, except for when they left three years ago."

"Why did they leave?"

Winry didn't say anything. She didn't know if Davy Jones knew about Ed and Al's mission, and she wasn't going to be the one to tell him. Davy Jones seemed to realize this, because he changed the subject. "Where did they go after they lost their mother?"

Winry raised an eyebrow. From what Ed said, this guy was not the sympathetic type. His questions seemed very out of character. "Where do you think?"

"With you and your parents?"

"My parents are dead. My grandmother took care of us."

"I see."

Winry couldn't wait any longer. "Why are you doing this to him?" she asked, standing up. "What did he do to deserve this?"

Davy Jones didn't bother to respond. Instead, he left the cabin, and Winry sat down, tears in her eyes.


	14. Chapter 13

Blah blah, no excuse for not updating, whatever

Blah blah, no excuse for not updating, whatever. I'm just glad I'm done with the events of the second movie, and therefore will move on to a better quality of writing than this.

Chapter break of sorts

Ed woke up rather abruptly from a bad dream. He sat up and looked around. Winry was sleeping in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. He sighed, and pulled her onto the bed.

Ed stretched out his arms. He hadn't gotten any decent sleep since before they had arrived at that island. It was nice to be able to think clearly.

Just then, the door opened, and Bill Turner came in. Ed was about to say something, but a warning glare from William Sr. quieted him very quickly.

"Listen, there's an island nearby, and there are people there. If you're careful, the two of you can get there before the captain notices you're gone."

"But won't he send somebody after us?"

"Not if he thinks you're dead."

"What?"

"You need a way to get there without using one of the boats. If you just disappear, he may think you couldn't take it anymore and jumped overboard."

"But there are two of us. Besides, there's no way I'd ever kill myself and leave my brother alone."

"I'm not saying you would be _trying_ to kill yourself. People don't usually think too clearly when they're overcome with despair."

"Wait… you mean, I should act like I've gone crazy?"

"You can do that, can't you?"

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to get to the island? I mean, Winry could make it, but…"

"You're an alchemist, aren't you? There's got to be some way for you to make it."

Ed thought it over. There were several possibilities, but they were all very risky. "How far is it to this island?"

"It's near enough to see from the deck, but not close enough to swim to."

_Well, there go most of our options,_ Ed thought. _The only way to do this is to..._ Ed groaned as it dawned on him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing."

-insert incredible plan here-

Ed sat panting on the beach. That trip had taken a lot out of him. He sat with Winry, who was breathing hard as well. _Oh, please. At least _she _didn't have to deal with metal limbs._ Once they had recovered, Ed looked around.

There was hardly anything on the island. There were a couple of houses nearby, but they looked deserted. Ed walked around, looking for a sign of life, but there was nothing.

"Did he trick us?" Winry asked, beginning to look nervous.

"No, I don't think so. These houses look like they've only recently been abandoned. It was probably populated the last time he was around here."

"How are we going to survive here if it's just us?"

"Winry, I'm an alchemist, remember? Besides, I could survive here even without alchemy."

"Yeah, right."

"Hey, didn't I tell you about my training?"

"Oh, yeah, your training…"

"Don't worry, Winry. We'll be okay."

They walked through the deserted village and towards a nearby boulder. It was fairly big, and it provided a good view of the island. They sat there for a long time, until it was dark and they could barely stay awake. Ed looked at the sky, and decided that it would be good to have something over their heads for the night. He led Winry into the trees, and they fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter break of sorts

Will stared at the relatively small island. It seemed deserted. There were a few houses, but they weren't in the best condition. In fact, Will was amazed that anybody would be willing to live there.

"So, what exactly are we doing here?" he asked Barbosa.

Barbosa didn't answer the question. Instead, he started to tell Will the history of this particular island, finishing with "Nobody's lived here for a few years now."

"Why do we need to go if nobody's there?"

"Just because nobody lives there doesn't mean nobody's there."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll soon find out."

To Will, that wasn't a very good answer, but he decided to wait. After a while, he went ashore with Barbosa and the dog (yeah, you know which one).

Chapter break of sorts

Winry woke up to a shout of surprise. She jumped up and looked around, her favorite wrench in her hands. Ed was on the ground, barely visible under a dog. Winry laughed.

From underneath the dog, Ed glared at her. "What's so funny, Winry?"

"Nothing, nothing. Do you want some help?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

Before Winry reached Ed, somebody came running up to them. He stopped as soon as he saw Ed on the ground.

"How did you get here?" he asked.

Ed squirmed underneath the weight of the dog, apparently trying to see whom it was talking to him. Finally, the dog got off, and Ed stood up. When he saw the man, Winry saw two emotions: surprise and relief.

"Will? I thought…"

"No, we managed to get away. Well, some of us, at least."

"Only some of you?"

"Jack stayed behind."

"Oh. But you're still… I thought for sure that nobody had made it."

"Who's this?" Will asked, gesturing to Winry.

"Oh, this is Winry Rockbell. We grew up together. Winry, this is Will Turner."

Winry shook hands with Will. He seemed nice enough.

"How did you end up here?" Will asked.

"Long story. What about you?"

"Well, we came here for a reason, but I don't know what that reason is."

"Who's we?"

"The people who survived, and also somebody else."

"Is it somebody I know?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

At this, somebody else came walking up. Winry assumed it was some friend of theirs, but Ed's reaction proved her wrong.

"Weren't you dead?" he asked. Winry could tell he wasn't happy about this guy being here.

Chapter break of sorts

Ed walked towards a boat on the shore, trying to concentrate on the dog instead of the people around him. He still didn't know what to think about the situation. He was glad that his friends hadn't died, but he wasn't so happy about Barbosa being alive, or about Barbosa leading them to Jack. Of course, he couldn't argue, since he didn't want Winry to be stuck on this island forever, and the only way to get off was to go to find Jack.

On the boat, Ed felt Barbosa's eyes on him. Nobody was talking, so Ed had to deal with a very uncomfortable silence. He wished they could get to the ship faster, but Will didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry, so he had to endure it.

Finally, they got to the ship. Everybody onboard was staring at Ed when he got on, except for Barbosa, who was looking at Winry. Winry obviously didn't like this attention, because one of her wrenches went flying through the air and hit Barbosa squarely in the face.

"Stop staring at me, you pervert!" she shouted. Everybody stared at her in shock.

_Oops. I guess I should have warned her…_ Ed thought. _Oh, well. Too late now._

"Who is that?" Elizabeth asked Ed as Winry pulled on the top half of her little outfit dealey.

"Oh, that's Winry. She's a good friend of mine."

"Why is she dressed like that?"

"Because she's an automail mechanic."

Winry evidently heard the word 'automail,' since she came over and introduced herself cheerfully. Ed watched in amazement as she and Elizabeth became best friends in less than five minutes.

Will came up to Ed as the ladies talked. "So, is she the one who made your arm and leg?"

"Yeah."

"So if you broke your arm here, she could fix it?"

"Well, she'd kill me first, but yes, she could."

"Why would she kill you?"

Winry came over and grabbed Ed's right arm. "Do you realize how much time and effort I put into making this? And then he goes and breaks it by doing something stupid and dangerous."

Ed pulled his arm away. "Hey, I pay you, don't I? I don't see what you're complaining about."

Winry shook her head. "Oh, you naïve little bean."

"Excuse me?"

Will added to the conversation in the following way: "It's like being a blacksmith. I don't like it when somebody misuses something I've made."

"Yeah, see, Ed? You have no respect for my work."

"Yes, I do."

"Then why do you use it so recklessly?"

"What, it's not like I _want_ to be in a dangerous situation like that."

"That's true," Will agreed. "Although you did decide to come with me on your own, even though you knew we were going after pirates."

"That's different, though."

Winry looked at Ed in shock. "You decided to go after pirates, Ed? Are you insane?"

"No, I'm not insane, Winry," Ed replied.

"He helped save my life," Elizabeth intervened.

"Oh," Winry said, then she decided to change the subject. "What happened to your arm, Ed?"

Ed looked at his arm. He had nearly forgotten about the wound, since it hadn't been bothering him. "You're just now asking about it?"

"I didn't notice it before."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Probably because you care more about my other arm," he muttered.

"What was that?" Winry asked.

"Nothing. Anyway,it's nothing serious."

From the corner of his eye, Ed saw an interesting expression on Will's face, but he ignored it. Will was probably just getting the wrong idea about Ed's relationship with Winry.

Chapter break of sorts

Barbosa approached Ed that evening. He was very curious about what had happened to him, and he wanted to know more about the girl. She had called him a pervert, but she had also been wearing very revealing clothing. She should have been expecting a reaction like that.

He found Ed on the deck, looking out to sea. Barbosa could tell Ed wasn't looking at the sea, but beyond. He was probably thinking about somebody he cared about…

"What are you doing out here?" Barbosa asked.

"Don't know."

"You shouldn't be so reckless. I'm not going to do anything if you fall overboard."

"Good to know." Barbosa blinked. His comment hadn't affected the boy in the least. There was definitely something bothering him.

"So, why is it that your friend barely wears anything?"

That comment definitely got Ed's attention. "Hey, it's not my fault that the people here are absurdly strict about clothing."

"So the fashion sense is different in your world?"

"WAY different."

"I have another question for you. What happened to your brother?"

"He made it back to our world."

"But you didn't?"

"What do you think?"

"No need to be so angry, boy, I was just asking a simple question."

Ed went back to looking at the horizon. Barbosa watched him for a while until Ed spoke again. "He probably thinks he'll never see me again."

"Your brother?"

"Who else? It's not like there's anyone else left of our family."

"What about your parents?"

"Our mom died when we were very young."

"What about your father?"

"Hmph. Some father _he_ turned out to be."

"That girl seems to care about you. A lot."

"Yeah…"

"Do you love her?"

This question definitely caught the small alchemist off-guard. He stood there stammering for about a minute before Barbosa continued. "Don't bother answering that."

They stood there for a while longer, and then Barbosa put his hand on Ed's shoulder. "Don't feel too bad. Your brother won't hate you for not being able to get back."

"That's easy for you to say."

"What, do you think that everything is your fault?"

"I know it's my fault. If I hadn't come up with that idea, Al would still be in his normal body right now."

"Accidents happen."

"That's not it. Our teacher warned us over and over that human transmutation was a very bad thing to do, but we still…"

"Human transmutation?" This was news to Barbosa. He had known that the boys had failed a transmutation, but he didn't know that they had been trying to create a person.

Ed looked down at his right hand. "That's right."

"Who meant that much to you that you were willing to go to such lengths to bring them back?"

"Our mother."

Finally, Barbosa understood just how hard this boy had it. He was definitely suffering more than the crew of the _Pearl_ ever had. "So, you pushed yourselves to learn, and ignored the laws, and put yourselves in such a sad state, just because you missed her?"

"Like I said before, we were young and desperate. There's no way we could have known that we would fail so miserably."

"So, the cost wasn't worth the results for you?"

"No, especially since what we managed to create didn't live very long."

"You should have listened to your teacher."

"Yeah, yeah, I realize that."

"So, what made you decide to join the military?"

"There's a lot of resources available for State Alchemists. By joining, I have a chance to get our bodies back to the way they were."

"Now, there's something I don't understand. Why don't you just ask your teacher for help?"

Ed looked at the sky. "Because I happen to like being alive."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Here's the type of person my teacher is. In order to see if it was worth training us, she gave us a knife, left us on an uninhabited island for a month, and told us to survive. Oh, and we weren't allowed to use alchemy."

"What if you didn't survive, though?"

"Oh, she had somebody stay on the island to make sure we didn't die."

"That's nice of her."

"Not really, since this guy beat the crap out of us almost every day."

"Why would he do that?"

"My teacher always told us that 'to train the mind, you must first train the body.' Think about it."

"Ah." _That definitely explains a lot about his character,_ Barbosa thought.

Chapter break of sorts

Winry sat on a small bunk, looking at a picture she had been keeping in her toolbox. She didn't know why she had it, but it brought back happy memories, of days when the three of them would spend their time playing.

After a moment, Winry noticed Elizabeth watching her. She moved over, and Elizabeth sat down next to her.

"What is that?" she asked.

"What, this? It's just a picture of us when we were kids."

"Of you and Ed?"

"And Al." Winry gave Elizabeth the picture.

"Is that really what Al looks like?"

"Yeah. Hard to imagine, isn't it?"

"It is. Ed used to have short hair?"

"Yep. He grew it out after… Well, he let it grow when he was getting his arm and leg installed."

"And you were there for him the whole time?"

"Yeah."

"You really care about him, then."

"I do. He's like a brother to me. Al, too."

At this point in time, Ed came down. "Hey, Winry. What are you looking at?"

Winry showed him the picture. "You remember this?"

"Oh, yeah, this is from that one time… Hey, why do you have this?"

Winry abruptly pulled the picture back and stuck it in her toolbox. "No reason."

Ed looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Is it so you can be reminded of how awesome I am all the time?"

"HA! As if! I just have it because Al's in it! If I had scissors, I'd cut you out!"

"Ooh, I'm so jealous."

"Yeah, you should be. Al's _way_ cuter than you are."

Ed sat down next to Winry. "If only he still had his body."

Winry looked down. "Yeah…"

Chapter break of sorts

When Ed woke up, Barbosa was standing over him. It was rather startling, since Ed was still used to the idea that Barbosa was an enemy. He momentarily panicked, and fell off the bunk, feeling like an idiot.

"That was graceful."

Ed sat up and gave Barbosa a death glare. There was no way he was going to be able to deal with this guy.

"You know, I _am_ the captain of this ship."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, you're going to have to follow my orders."

"Oh, really? Even though I happen to have a higher rank?" Ed replied as he pulled out his watch.

"You should know by now that ranks don't matter when you're drowning."

"Is that a threat? Because I could just as easily say the same."

"I'm sure. Now, I have something I want you to do."

"And what's that?"

Barbosa led Ed down to a lower level of the ship. "You see that hole? Fix it."

Ed looked with some surprise at Barbosa. He fixed the hole and started to walk away. Barbosa grabbed his arm before he got anywhere.

"What now?" Ed asked.

"I just thought I'd let you know, it was my choice to pick you two up. I could have easily left you there on your own."

"So?"

"Did you not notice? That island has been deserted for five years. Nobody goes near it anymore. You would have been there for a long time."

Ed jerked his arm away and walked away. He wasn't in the mood to deal with this. If he wanted a lecture on how he should be grateful, he could just listen to Winry going on about his automail. At least then he'd be with somebody he didn't hate.

Chapter break of sorts

Winry was enjoying herself on the ship. It was interesting to see how everything worked, even if it wasn't nearly as complicated as anything back home. Of course, she was wearing more than she usually would, but she didn't want anybody staring at her.

That evening, she was standing on the deck with Elizabeth, talking about girl stuff, when Winry noticed that she had an audience again.

"Jeez, is everybody on this ship a stinking pervert?"

"No, not everybody. It's mostly because of your clothes, though."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Most people don't wear that little around here. Maybe you should wear something else."

"Like what? This is the only outfit I have."

"Then just ignore them."

Winry tried to ignore the two pirates, but they were getting on her nerves. She was about to throw a wrench at one when Ed came walking up.

"Hey, Winry."

"Oh, hi."

"What's with the wrench?"

Winry looked at the wrench in her hand and hid it behind her back. "Nothing," she said with a smile.

Ed raised his eyebrows. "Really? Because for a second there I thought you were going to hit somebody."

"No, I wasn't."

"Then why do you have it out?"

"No reason."

"I don't believe that."

"Why not?"

"Because whenever you have a wrench out it means you're either fixing something or trying to kill somebody."

"I don't try to kill people, Ed."

"But you throw wrenches at them."

"Only when I think it's necessary."

"How is it necessary to split someone's skull in half?"

"I've never done that."

"Oh, yeah? What about–"

"That doesn't count. You're just exaggerating."

"I don't exaggerate. You're crazy."

Before she could stop herself, Winry proved Ed's point by smacking him over the head with her wrench. He managed to catch himself before he fell, and turned on her, rubbing his head.

"See? You're insane!"

"No I'm not!"

"You just hit me!"

"You provoked me!"

"So? That doesn't mean you can just hit me like that!"

By this point in time, everybody was staring at the two of them. Winry saw Ragetti trying not to laugh, and she let the wrench fly again. After that day, Winry had no problems with people staring at her.

Chapter break of sorts

Ed sat on his bed, still rubbing his head. He was used to Winry's… questionable behavior, but it was embarrassing to have her hit him like that in front of everybody. He didn't like to look pathetic, especially in front of Barbosa. That just bothered him.

He sprawled on the bed, thinking about everything that had happened. Seeing most of his friends alive had been so much of a relief, part of him could barely believe it. Of course, he had barely believed it when he had thought they had died.

"So, this is what happens when something messes with my emotions, huh?" he muttered to himself. He didn't realize that Barbosa was standing in the doorway, looking at Ed with a fair amount of sympathy in his eyes.

Ed continued his line of thought for a while, occasionally making remarks out loud. After a while, he went into a full-fledged hand puppet conversation. When he saw Barbosa standing in the doorway, he started, and fell off the bed (again).

"What do you want?" he asked, not too happy with the fact that Barbosa had snuck up on him.

"Do you often talk to yourself?"

"Only when there's nobody else around." Ed glared at Barbosa. "What do you want?"

"Something broke down here. It's impossible for us to fix it."

Ed stood up and followed Barbosa out of the room. He used alchemy on the broken thingy and turned back to go to bed.

Barbosa followed Ed back into the room. Ed tried to ignore him, but he couldn't. It was just too… creepy. Ed sat up.

"Don't you have better things to do?"

"Once again, you're pushing your luck. Don't forget that I'm helping to find Jack."

"That doesn't mean I like you."

"I don't expect you to. After all, you're just a messed up _little_ boy."

Barbosa stopped Ed in mid-punch. Ed fell to the ground, and his side erupted in pain once again. He lay on the ground for a moment, trying not to look too pathetic, and got up slowly.

"I'm. Not. Little," he said, anger seeping into his voice.

Barbosa laughed. "Are you trying to sound threatening? Because it's not working. I still see you for the sad little boy that you are."

Ed aimed another punch at Barbosa. He didn't like how much he was using the word "little." After all, Ed still had time to grow…

He missed again, and fell to the ground, directly on his left arm. He stood up shakily, trying to ignore the pain. It took him a moment to feel the blood trickling down his arm.

He glared at Barbosa, gripping his arm firmly. There was nothing he could say at the moment. It's not like he could blame the fact that he was a klutz on anyone else.

Eventually he sat down, realizing that he would have to put up with this guy for a long time. Barbosa stood over him, looking at Ed's right hand. After a moment, he broke the silence.

"What will you do afterwards?"

"What, after we return to normal?" Ed let go of his arm and looked at his palms. "I don't know."

"You don't have a plan?"

"Not yet. It's not like getting back is something we know will happen. We need to concentrate on finding that out before we can think about anything else."

"How sad."

"Eh?" Ed looked up. He wasn't expecting any sympathy. He especially wasn't expecting Barbosa to be a nice guy. It was way out of character, especially since the only thing that had kept him from killing Ed was Ed's abilities in alchemy. He still didn't know what Barbosa had wanted him to do.

Chapter break of sorts

For some reason, Ed had decided that this was a good time to ask about it. Barbosa was quiet for a while, watching as Ed cleaned up his arm and hand. He was debating whether he should tell the boy the truth. After a moment, he made a decision.

"You really want to know?"

"Sorta."

"Why?"

"I dunno. Just curious, I guess."

"You do realize that my plans didn't involve my crew losing the battle."

"Yeah, I know."

"Don't tell anybody else."

"Why not?"

"Because if you do, then people might forget about why we're here in the first place."

"Oh, right. So you don't care if I hate you?"

"You already hate me, don't you? Besides, you seem to be more level-headed than the others."

Ed continued to clean his right hand off. "Only because I know the consequences of being an idiot."

Barbossa noticed somebody standing behind the door. He decided to wait to tell the young alchemist what his fate could have been, and the only way to that was to change the subject.

"You really hate yourself for causing this, don't you?"

Ed stared at the ground. Barbosa decided to leave the room and see whom it was outside.

Chapter break of sorts

There wasn't much of a breeze for the next several days, so there was a lot of time for sitting around and doing nothing. Ed sat on the deck with Winry. She was doing something to his automail, although Ed didn't know what. He wanted to go elsewhere very badly, but every time he mentioned this, she said "Just a little bit longer!"

Finally he'd had enough. He asked again.

"Can you wait for like five minutes?" she asked.

"That's what you said three hours ago! What are you doing anyway?"

"You'll see when I'm done!"

"But you're never going to be done, are you?"

"If you keep distracting me, then no."

Ed groaned. He rested his chin on his left hand and looked over at everyone else. They weren't doing anything interesting, but at least their arms hadn't been taken hostage by a girl with a menacing wrench always available to break someone's skull.

After a while, Will came over. "Are you almost done?"

Ed looked at Winry, who shook her wrench menacingly. "This is very delicate work. You can't rush it!"

"So it takes an entire day to do one thing? Can't you build one of these from scratch in a week?" Ed muttered.

"But right now it's actually attached. That makes things harder."

"But you've fixed things in less than an hour before."

"This is different."

"How's it different?"

"You'll see when I'm done."

"Yeah, you keep saying that, but it's still not done."

"It's getting close, okay?"

"What's your definition of close?"

Winry held her wrench inches away from Ed's face. "Don't mess with me."

Finally, Winry finished whatever it is she was doing, and Ed stood up. He looked at his arm for several minutes, not seeing any improvements. "So what did you do to it?"

Winry's eyes lit up as she grabbed Ed's wrist. "I made some adjustments so that it's lighter. Since apparently you fall overboard every chance you get, I thought this would be a good thing to do."

Ed blinked. "How the heck does that work?" he asked.

"I'd explain it to you, but you wouldn't listen, so I just won't bother."

"Hey! Who says I wouldn't listen?"

"I know from experience."

They argued for a while longer before Will intervened. Ed continued to study his arm and tried to see if it was actually lighter. Eventually he gave up and decided to take Winry's word for it.

Chapter break of sorts

There came a day when Ed was standing near the helm, staring out into the sea. Something flashed before his eyes, and he blinked. Whatever it was had disappeared, but Ed could have sworn he had seen a familiar face. He stared some more, but he saw no more of it.

After a while, Barbosa came and stood next to him. Ed decided it was time to move, but he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It seems your friend is back in your world."

"Huh? How would you know that?"

"She isn't anywhere onboard, and I know for a fact that she didn't fall overboard."

"So she just disappeared?"

"That's how it would appear."

"Good. I was worried about that."

"It's your time to go back too."

"Huh?"

Before Ed really knew what was going on, he had been pushed overboard, and he was sinking into the sea.

Nobody witnessed this incident, but Will did realize that both Ed and Winry had disappeared. When he asked Barbosa about it, the captain only stated that they had gone home. Since they were out in the middle of nowhere, there was no way of arguing it. Ed was gone, and he probably wouldn't come back.

Will thought about it for a while before realizing that if Ed really had gone back, there was one less thing to worry about. He was back where he belonged.

Chapter break of sorts

Yeah, so I might actually update more often nowadays. Or maybe not. I may just go back to my little shell of bitterness and anger at the world, and I may channel those feelings into my writing so that you can have some nice angst.

Okay, now I feel stupid. I was wondering why I hadn't gotten any reviews, and decided that either I was being a little too hopeful, or... I hadn't posted the chapter yet. Yeah. Saving the document and posting it are two different things, junodog. Yeesh.


	15. Extra, part two

I'd feel guilty if I didn't update this now, seeing as it's been ready for ages and I'm thinking about it at the moment

I'd feel guilty if I didn't update this now, seeing as it's been ready for ages and I'm thinking about it at the moment. Laaaarrrrr.

Begin chapter.

Two days later, Jack finally spotted the remains of a ship on the shores of an island. The trees grew close together, and a stream ran into the ocean from the hills in the distance. Jack and Barbossa went ashore in a dingy and walked up to the wreckage. Something about it was bothering Jack, and after a moment, he put it into words.

"Could this ship have been turned all the way around while being attacked? Because it seems to me that it was heading east. Away from the Governor."

"Like you said, Jack, it's not our place to wonder," Barbossa replied. "I don't suppose this boy decided to stay onboard this… fine ship."

"Doubtful." Jack turned to gaze at the thick forest by the stream. "Maybe he went for a swim."

They had been walking along the banks of the stream for a while when Jack found the first signs of the boy; a torn piece of cloth hanging from a branch.

"Well, looks like we're getting closer," Jack remarked as they continued on. "Maybe we should call his name?"

"What name? The _esteemed_ governor didn't give us a name, remember?" Barbossa snapped.

"Really? I thought he had. Or maybe that was someone else he was talking about." Jack stepped over a rock and stopped suddenly. Barbossa barely missed running into him.

"What is it, Captain?" Barbossa asked after a moment of silence.

"I stepped on something funny," Jack replied before crouching down and lifting his foot. Underneath was a very small shoe, perfect for a little boy to run around in. He looked around again, hoping to see some sort of trail, when something caught his eye. He stepped over the bushes by the stream and knelt down next to a hollow tree trunk. "Hello."

A pair of golden eyes stared wordlessly up at him. Jack reached with his hand into the space, but the boy shied away, letting out a fearful whimper. Barbossa crouched down next to Jack and looked inside. The boy was filthy; his arms and legs were covered in scratches, and his face was caked with mud. It also appeared as if the boy hadn't eaten in days.

Jack exchanged glances with Barbossa before reaching out to the boy again. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Edward," the boy mumbled, still keeping his distance from the two. He seemed woefully afraid of them, but Jack was determined to get the boy out without a struggle.

"Well, Edward, we've been looking for you," Jack said. "Your father wanted us to bring you back to him."

"Daddy?" Edward blinked curiously at Jack. "Dad's looking for me?"

"Yes he is," Jack said. "Do you want to see him?"

Edward nodded. "And Mom too."

Jack decided to ignore that statement for the moment. "Well, why don't you come with us?"

The boy sat in his space for a moment longer before pushing himself to his hands and knees. Just when Jack thought he was going to exit the shelter of the tree's roots, however, he turned and pushed against something.

"Al, we're gonna see Mom and Dad again. Wake up."

To Jack's surprise, whatever Edward was pushing moved and groaned. Then both men were shocked to see a second pair of golden eyes look at them.

"They're gonna take us to Mom, Al," Edward repeated.

Jack exchanged glances with Barbossa again. This seemed to be quite the dent in their plans, but they couldn't just leave the second child here. Something about it didn't seem quite right.

"That's right," Jack finally said. "Although it's going to be a while before we arrive."

Edward and Al began crawling out of the confined space, and for a moment Jack stared at the two, debating on what to do next. Eventually, he settled on picking up Edward, who seemed to be the elder of the two, and Barbossa picked up the younger. From there, they made their way back to the ship.

Chapter break thingy.

"There are two of them," Jack stated for the third time since setting sail. The brothers, Edward and Alphonse, as he had soon found out, were currently sleeping on his bed. He would have to fix that little problem soon, but for now, he'd concentrate on the bigger problem.

"Apparently only one of them is worthy of being Governor Smith's son, but which one?" Barbossa continued.

"You know, I think I know what's going on here," Jack finally said. "Neither is his adopted son. He wants one of them for his own reasons, but he must not have realized that there were two of them."

"Well, that explains a lot, Captain, but that still leaves the issue of what to do with them now," Barbossa pointed out.

"That's easy," Jack said. "Give 'em both up. That way everyone's happy."

"If ye say so, Captain." And with that, Barbossa turned and left the cabin, leaving Jack to watch the boys and ponder.

Chapter break thingy.

"What's that?"

Jack spared a glance at the child sitting next to him before going back to his gun. "It's a gun."

"What's it for?" Edward asked.

"Shooting things."

"Like what?"

"Well, usually people," Jack said.

"Why people?" Edward asked, a confused frown on his face.

"Most of the time, it's because I have a reason to kill them," Jack stated before he heard a frightened gasp come from Edward. He looked over to see the boy staring at him in horror. Jack sighed and put the gun aside for the moment. It was becoming obvious that he wasn't a fatherly sort of man. "Forget I said that, okay? The people I shoot are, well, very bad." In a way. They were his enemies, at least.

"But that's mean!" Edward exclaimed before scooting back to sit next to his sleeping brother. The two of them were frightfully weak, but Edward had at least been able to get his brother to eat. Of course, eating and drinking only led to other things… Jack had left the cleanup of these unpleasant surprises up to his wonderful crew.

"Well, that's life," Jack said before picking up the boy and laying him down on the bunk. "Isn't it time for you to go to sleep?"

"Not sleepy," Edward muttered before rolling over onto his side and staring at nothing. "It's scary here."

"Scary? Do I frighten you?"

Edward shook his head. "No, that man with a beard. He's scary."

"Barbossa?"

Edward nodded. "He's scary."

"Well, I can see why you think that, but don't worry," Jack said. "He won't harm you."

"What about Al?" Edward asked.

"He won't harm either of you."

"Are you sure?" Edward asked suspiciously.

Jack sighed. "If he hurt you then some people we need would be hurt as well. We need you alive."

"Why?"

"Because we want your father to be happy with us. Now go to sleep."

"But I'm still not sleepy!" Edward exclaimed.

Jack groaned. "What will make you sleepy?"

"Mom always tells us a story," Edward said. "Or sometimes she sings."

It was at that moment that Jack had an epiphany of sorts. "Stay here for a moment and _don't touch anything._ I'll be right back."

Chapter break thingy.

He went to the deck and walked down the steps to where one of his men stood, staring off at the sea. Jack stopped beside him and stood looking out over the water as well.

"A lot of waves out there," he commented after a moment.

William Turner turned in surprise at this and nearly jumped when he saw who was standing next to him. "Sorry, Captain. I was just thinking about my family."

"That's right," Jack said. "You have one of those… things, don't you?" he asked, gesturing up to his cabin.

"Yes, sir," William said. "He's probably grown a lot since I last saw him."

"Well, then, would you have any ideas as to how to shut them up?"

William smiled and shook his head at Jack. "Leave it to me, Captain," he said before walking back to the cabin. Jack followed at a distance and waited a while to go inside.

To his relief, the moment he went inside, he saw that Edward had taken a liking to William. He sat in the man's lap and rested his head against William's chest, his arms wrapped around his legs. Jack watched from the doorway as William spoke in low whispers to the child, and it wasn't long before the golden eyes closed and Edward relaxed in William's grip.

"Well, he certainly likes you, doesn't he?" Jack commented as William placed the sleeping child next to his brother. "But you know, he's not so bad when he's quiet."

"He won't be quiet for long," William said. "He's very talkative. Let me know when you need my help again."

"Right," Jack said distractedly as he looked at the boys. "Carry on."

End of chapter.

Jack's not very good with kids, is he? Too bad Ed can't use alchemy yet, that'd be really fun to mess around with…

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Ed and Al _did_ have access to fresh water, and they probably ate a little bit of grass or something, hence them surviving all this time. It doesn't seem incredibly realistic to me, but hey, I have Benji the plothole monster to blame for any continuity issues. XD

Now to go to bed before I start spouting nonsense. Oh wait…


	16. Chapter 14

Ed struggled to get to the surface, but his limbs weren't allowing him to move upward

Nurrrr story update nurrrr.

Ed struggled to get to the surface, but his limbs weren't allowing him to move upward. After a while, he saw a shadow nearby. Something grabbed his arm, and he was pulled to the surface. Ed looked around. Someone was pulling him onto a small boat.

Once Ed was on the boat, the person spoke to him in a strange language. Ed looked at the man in confusion. "Um… I don't really understand you…"

The man blinked and turned away. "Sorry… I can't speak your language very good… Amestrian."

Ed sat up in a hurry. "Eh? You know of Amestris?"

"Yes. You need to sleep… Long time before we reach land. You lucky to be living."

"Right…" Ed said as he rested his head on the back of the boat. He closed his eyes, unaware of the storm that was brewing overhead. He woke up in the middle of it, and struggled to help the man keep the little vessel afloat. The rain had soaked all of his clothes, and he began to feel very cold.

After several hours, Ed's body was beginning to fail him. His hand was becoming numb from the cold. He tried as hard as he could to continue working, but it was too much for him. He couldn't even hold on as a gigantic wave crashed on the boat, sending its two occupants into the sea.

Ed began to sink again, and he struggled in vain to reach the surface. He tried to bring his hands together in the hopes of being able to transmute something, but he couldn't. He continued to struggle as his body began to shut down.

Just as he was on the edge of consciousness, Ed felt a hand grab the back of his shirt. He felt someone pulling him up. Once his head broke the surface, Ed began gasping for air, choking slightly on the seawater he had swallowed.

He heard familiar voices calling his name, but he couldn't respond. His body was putting all its efforts into surviving. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and after a moment, he realized that someone was pulling out his arm._ Why would they do that…?_ he thought as he gradually lost consciousness.

Nurrrr chapter break nurrrrr

"_You're a lucky one. I could have easily let you die, let you fall into the sea, but I didn't. Your life is worth something to me. You will work for me soon. Nothing you do will change that. Your soul is mine."_

Ed's eyes snapped open. He blinked several times to get rid of the image of Davy Jones that seemed to be imprinted on his brain. His body felt numb, and Ed tried to move his hand. As he brought it to his face, he noticed that his fingertips were white. He assumed that it was from the cold.

As he looked at his fingers, Ed felt something brush against his shoulder, and a large hand took a hold of his. Ed looked to see where the arm was coming from. Roy was lying right next to him, looking straight into his eyes.

"Don't push yourself, Fullmetal."

"Gah!" Ed started and tried to sit up. His body wasn't responding the way it should have, and Roy pushed him down before he could get all the way up.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" he asked in an irritated voice.

"No, I heard you," Ed replied. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to make sure you don't die. In case you didn't figure it out, you have hypothermia."

"Oh." Ed tried moving his arm again. His automail limbs were still unattached, but that wasn't too big of a problem. Ed was having enough problems with simply moving his fingers.

Roy took a hold of Ed's hand again and gently placed it next to his body. "Trust me, if I didn't have to do this, I wouldn't. I just thought it'd be easier to wake up to me right here than to the smelly old guy who was the only other volunteer."

"Uh-huh…"

"And of course you had to have an injury to add to our problems, didn't you?"

Ed blinked, not quite getting it. "What are you talking about?"

"Your arm. What happened to it?"

Ed looked at his bandaged arm for a moment before remembering. "I got shot."

Roy blinked. "Okay… I think you managed to pick up an accent, Fullmetal."

"Huh?"

Roy sat up. "Are you hungry?"

"Somewhat."

Roy stood up and walked to the door. "I'll get you some lunch. Try to keep warm. You still have a ways to go before you recover completely."

After he ate, Ed went back to a state of semi-consciousness. He curled up into a ball in the hopes that he would get at least a little bit warmer. After a moment, he felt Roy lie down beside him. The Colonel turned on his side to face Ed and wrapped his arms around Ed's chest.

"I wish you'd just get over it yourself so that I wouldn't have to do this," Roy said.

"You're not the only one," Ed replied. In truth, he was grateful for the warmth, but he didn't want to say anything. The situation was awkward enough as it was. He slowly fell asleep as Roy began the process of warming up his fingers.

Nurrrr fake yaoi chapter break nurrrr

The next morning, Ed woke up without anyone in his room, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found that he wasn't hypothermic anymore, although he was still very cold. He sat up and pulled the blanket around him, looking around at the room for the first time. He was in a ship, which made sense, but this one looked much more advanced than the ones he had gotten used to. Ed smiled. He had to be in his own world now.

After a while, someone opened the door, and Ed looked up to see Roy walking into the cabin. The colonel smiled when he saw that Ed was awake, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"You seem to be doing a lot better."

Ed nodded. "Yeah. I am."

"Now you just need to stop it with the accent."

"Hey! It's not like I want to sound like this!" Ed snapped.

Roy laughed. "It's cute. You're just like a little kid."

"Wha- hey!"

"Do you want to see your brother?" Roy asked, interrupting Ed before he had a chance to rant.

Ed blinked. "Yeah. How is he?"

"He's fine. He was afraid you wouldn't make it back alive, but here you are. Oh, and…"

"Yeah?"

"For some reason, I get the feeling that only a few days have passed here since we ended up in that… world. And only two or so days passed between when we saw you last and when we found you again…"

Ed frowned. "That doesn't make any sense…"

"Neither does anything that's happened up to this point, so we've just decided to ignore it."

Ed blinked. "That doesn't sound like you…"

"Oh well. That's the only way we'll ever be able to deal with this, so that's what I'm going with." Roy tossed Ed a button-up shirt. "Put that on. I have a feeling that some of the people on this ship are… well, they were staring at you with a certain look in their eyes…"

Ed groaned. "I get the picture." He quickly donned the shirt and stood up, grateful that his legs weren't too weak. He followed Roy through the ship to another cabin, in which the two lieutenants and Al were sitting. Ed took a seat next to his brother and waited for someone to speak.

"Brother…" Al began finally. "What happened?"

Ed looked at Al, and at the others in the room, and sighed before going into the story. When he came to the parts with Davy Jones, Ed hesitated, but he continued with a neutral voice. He overlooked the parts with Winry, figuring that nobody needed to know about that, and ended when Barbossa pushed him over the edge of the small ship they had been on.

"And that's it?" Roy asked.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. After that, that one guy found me and then…"

"You ended up with us."

Ed nodded again.

"You should be grateful that that man was out there, otherwise you would have drowned," Havoc remarked.

Ed nodded yet again. "I know."

Riza smiled. "It's good to have you back, Edward."

Ed smiled back. "It's good to be back."

Nurrrr chapter break nurrrr

That night, Ed couldn't get to sleep. He tossed and turned on his bed for a while before Al decided to comment.

"Brother, are you okay?"

Ed sat up and looked at his brother. "I'm fine. I just have a lot on my mind."

"You know, that accent is kind of obnoxious," Al commented before walking up to the bed. "Is there something you didn't mention?"

Ed shrugged. He didn't feel bad about not mentioning Winry, but there was something… "I had a weird dream, or something… just before I woke up with… the colonel…"

"You did?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah. He… Davy Jones… said something to me. Something about me being grateful… and how my soul is his or something, which is complete bull since I'm not even in the same world as him, but…"

"It's probably nothing, brother. Besides, if you do run into him again, I know you'll pull through okay."

Ed smiled. "Thanks, Al. Oh, and one more thing…"

"Yeah?"

"I… saw something on that ship, and it looked like your body… but it was gone after a few seconds, and I couldn't get close enough to investigate."

Al pulled Ed into a hug. "It was probably from the stress, brother. There's no way…"

Ed shook his brother off. "But what if it really was there? Then how-"

"Brother, don't worry about it. We'll find a way to get our bodies back. I swear we will."

Ed nodded and yawned. "We will…"

Al gently pushed Ed down onto the bed and covered him with the blanket, and Ed was soon fast asleep. They were on their way home.

Nurrr end chapter nurrrr

Just so you know, I don't like any of the yaoi pairings that have appeared in the FMA fanbase, and thus the scene with Ed and Roy sharing a bed was written simply because it is humorous. I'm going to leave it at that because it's pointless to rant about yaoi on a fansite.


	17. Chapter 15

Time passed, and eventually they got back to Amestris, and Ed was able to move on with his search

Two updates in one day, yay! I'm getting slightly better at this!

Time passed, and eventually they got back to Amestris, and Ed was able to move on with his search. He went to many places, and saw many things, and soon he found himself in a fight against Envy, at the fake doors that Father had created. Once Envy swallowed him, Ed came to a stunning realization. He could get them out of there.

He shared his knowledge with Envy and Ling Yao, but just as he was about to lead them back to the real world, Ed heard a sound in the distance. Being the curious young boy he is, Ed decided to check it out. Envy, however, wasn't so curious, and he chased after Ed as the alchemist ran to wherever the sound was coming from. Ling simply stood where he was, looking utterly confused as usual.

Envy soon caught up with Ed and knocked him to the ground, causing Ed to accidentally swallow some of the blood on the ground. He got to his knees, coughing up some of the blood, and looked at Envy.

"You didn't need to hit me, I wasn't trying to run off…" Ed muttered.

"I don't want to wait around for you, pipsqueak," Envy replied, placing his rather large hand thingy on Ed's chest and pushing him down into the sea of blood. Ed managed to keep his head up so that he could breathe, but he couldn't get away from Envy's grip. "Get us back. Now."

Ed glared at Envy. "Let me see where that noise came from, and then I'll do it."

"What noise? What are you talking about, pipsqueak?"

Ed brought his hands together and formed a blade on his right arm before stabbing in Envy's general direction. Envy laughed and easily blocked this attack. "Nice try, but seriously, what noise are you talking about?"

Ed paused. "Wait, you didn't hear it?"

"Obviously not, if I'm asking about it," Envy growled. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I wonder," Ed replied sarcastically. The wind was whipping his hair in his face, but he ignored it. "It's not like my arm or ribs are broken or anything."

Envy leaned his head in close to Ed's face, which blocked Ed's eyes from the sun. "You're lucky that's all I did to you. I could have done so much worse…"

Ed heard the noise again, but he chose to ignore it. "I know that. You've already ruined and destroyed thousands of lives, so why should mine be any different, right?"

Envy tightened his grip on Ed, causing the alchemist to grimace. "There is a difference, though. You're important to us because you've opened the doors. We want you. Alive."

Ed blinked. The wind had gotten some sand in his eye, and it was at that moment that he realized that they definitely weren't in a sea of blood. The sea they were currently dealing with was, in fact, an ocean. The Pacific Ocean, to be precise, but Ed and Envy had no way of knowing that.

Envy looked around at the area before looking back at Ed. "What the hell did you do?" the homunculus hissed.

"I didn't do anything, _Envy_. I'm just as confused as you are," Ed replied. Envy let go of him, and Ed sat up, looking around and scratching his head with his automail hand. "Although, I might have an idea…"

Ed heard the noise again, and saw that there was a dog running toward him, barking its little head off at the two. It stopped about fifty feet away and began growling. Envy took a few steps back, but the dog didn't come any closer.

Ed groaned and began adjusting the brace on his broken arm. After a moment, he heard a voice behind him that sounded rather… terrified.

"Edward!"

Ed started and fell back as he tried, and failed, to turn around and face this woman who had said his name. He blinked a couple of times before he recognized the face that was now looking down at him. "Elizabeth…?"

Elizabeth knelt down beside him and gently took over with the brace. "What are you doing here? What… what happened to you? You're…"

Ed somehow managed to sit up and sat facing Elizabeth. "Why are you so freaked out? I mean, yeah, my arm's broken, but…" Ed looked down at himself. "Oh…"

"You're covered in blood! How-"

"So, Miss Swann, I suppose this boy's arrival is what drew us to this island, eh?" interrupted another familiar voice. Ed looked up and groaned when he saw Barbossa walking up to them, followed by Will Turner. "And what exactly are you doing here, Mister Elric?"

Ed glared at the older man as he clutched his arm. "How the hell should I know?"

"Very well, then. Just tell me what this is," Barbossa replied, gesturing to Envy.

Ed looked back at Envy, who had backed up some, but was still watching Ed intently. "That's Envy."

"And…?"

"His personality is about the same as how he looks."

Will looked back at Envy. "That bad, eh? Why are you with him?"

Ed shook his head. "Long story, but I never wanted to be around him in the first place."

Envy took this as his cue to assume his usual form, and walked with some difficulty up to the small group. Ed smirked. Evidently Envy had troubles walking through sand when he weighed so much.

"What are you?" Will asked, staring at Envy with a frown.

"Homunculus," Envy answered. "Now then, Fullmetal, care to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Ed shook his head. "You can find out for yourself, bastard."

"Hey! Don't call me a bastard!" Envy snapped.

"I'll call you whatever I want," Ed growled. "I never liked you to begin with."

At this point, Barbossa interrupted by grabbing Ed's automail arm and pulling him to his feet. "If you're about finished, we have somewhere to be this evening."

Ed yanked his arm out of Barbossa's grip and raised an eyebrow at him. "Be somewhere?"

"Why yes, while you were off having your little adventures, we've been busy trying to get to the place where Jack Sparrow is. Or did you forget about that already?" Barbossa replied.

"I've been busy with my own problems," Ed snapped. "Or does the fact that I'm covered in blood not mean anything to you?"

At this, Elizabeth seemed to realize something. "That's right," she muttered. "What happened to you?"

Ed shook his head. "It's not my blood."

Will raised an eyebrow. "Then did you-"

"No!"

"How did you get covered in blood, then?" Elizabeth finally asked.

Ed shook his head again. "It's a long story…"

"It's because we were trapped in the fake doors that Father had created," Envy stated. Both Will and Elizabeth stared at him, but Barbossa nodded in understanding.

"Ah, that sort of place. Well, then, it's time we returned to our ship," Barbossa said before turning around and beginning to walk off. "We could use an alchemist on the ship."

Ed didn't move. As much as he was grateful to be out of that place, he didn't know whether going with them was the best idea.

"Unless ye'd rather be stuck on this island for the rest of your life, unless someone else happens to stop by," Barbossa continued. "But I rather doubt that anyone would."

Ed saw that Will and Elizabeth were both watching him, and he decided he didn't really have a choice. Besides, maybe he'd have a greater chance of getting home if he went with them. Ed looked at his broken arm again and muttered, "Fine."

"I had a feeling you'd agree. You two, take him back to the ship. I'll catch up in a moment."

Ed walked silently with Will and Elizabeth to the small dingy on the far side of the island. After a moment, Will stopped studying Ed and spoke up.

"Edward… what happened?"

"You heard Envy," Ed replied. "We somehow managed to arrive here after being stuck in a failed attempt at creating the Doors of Truth. The Doors are someplace you only arrive it through… certain circumstances."

"Like what?"

"Attempting human transmutation, for one. But the Doors aren't anything like the place where I just was. That place was a sea of blood."

Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "That's why you're…"

Ed nodded. "Yeah."

They arrived at the boat, and Will pushed Ed into the water. As Ed's head broke the surface, he immediately glared at Will.

"What was that for?" Ed shouted before stopping. His shouting had given him an unpleasant reminder that his ribs were broken, and he clutched at his chest. "Ow…" Ed looked down at the water around him. Most of it was red with blood.

"That should have gotten most of it out of your clothes," Will replied nonchalantly. Ed rolled his eyes.

"You could have warned me," Ed muttered. Will held out a hand to Ed and helped him to his feet.

"It's more than just your arm, isn't it?" Will asked.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. Envy got a bunch of my ribs, too."

"You were fighting him?" Elizabeth asked.

Ed nodded. "Before I realized that we didn't necessarily have to be stuck in that place, Envy wanted to kill me. He probably still does, but if there's a chance of getting back home…"

"He wants you alive, then? Why would it matter where you are?"

Ed scowled. "His little group needs me for something. I don't know what exactly, but I doubt it's anything good."

"Then why don't you fight against it?" Elizabeth asked.

"What do you think I've been doing all this time?" Ed snapped. "The only problem is, we have a lot of enemies."

At that moment, Barbossa and Envy came walking up, and Ed narrowed his eyes. "Why are you bringing _him_?"

"Because he's going to help us," Barbossa replied. "Besides, can you really abandon one of your companions in a place such as this?"

"If I could get rid of that bastard it would be the best moment of my life," Ed growled.

"Well then, you're just out of luck, aren't you? He's coming."

"He's too heavy," Ed remarked. "Just because he looks different doesn't mean he's not the same as that _thing._"

"I've already thought about that," Envy replied. "I can just change into some big whale or something."

Ed tried to come up with another argument, but he was stumped, so he simply glared at Envy, who smirked right back at him. "You're not going to get rid of me, pipsqueak."

Ed managed to put a lot of effort into not attacking Envy, but he still wished he could bash Envy's head in with a spiky baseball bat. Instead, he settled for muttering, "Damn," under his breath.

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Once they were on the ship, which was crewed by men that reminded Ed of Ling, Will led Ed downstairs and to a small table. Ed sat down in a chair and remained silent as Will took off the brace and made a better one. Ed stared at his arm, not speaking until Will finished.

"Thanks."

Will nodded and stood up. "I wish I could do something for your ribs, but…"

"Eh, they're not out of place or anything. They'll heal on their own."

"What about your head?"

"Huh?"

Will placed a finger on Ed's forehead, where the wound from Scar was covered in bandages. Ed brought his hand up to touch it as well. "Oh, that's from something else."

Will looked down at Ed's automail. Ed noticed his gaze and held it up. "We haven't succeeded yet."

"How is your brother?"

Will noticed that Ed didn't look too happy when he replied. "He's… last time I saw him was in the middle of a fight, and then I ended up…"

"Is he all right?"

Ed nodded. "He should be. He didn't end up where I was, at least, which is a good thing."

"You've seen the others from your world since you've gotten back, right?"

Ed nodded.

"How are they doing?"

Ed noticed that Elizabeth had come down, and was now sitting on the bottom step, listening quietly. He sighed. "Mustang and Hawkeye are doing fine, I think. The Colonel got himself stabbed, but he survived and right now he's recovering. Last time I saw him, he was going back to Central to… um, do something important…" Ed wasn't in the mood to explain everything that was going on in his country.

"What about Lieutenant Havoc?"

Ed looked down at the floor. "He can't walk anymore. He's retired from the military now."

"Are you serious?" Elizabeth asked.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. He was stabbed by one of Envy's friends, right in the spinal cord. His legs are paralyzed now."

Not for the first time since Ed had gotten back, Will wondered just what the boy was up to in his life. After talking about Havoc, Ed had grown serious, and was now picking at his automail hand, trying to get the sand out that had been lodged in there. Will watched him for another moment before going up to the deck.

After a moment, Tia Dalma noticed him and walked over. "He has suffered," she muttered before walking below deck. Will watched her with vague interest before going off and doing ship-type stuff.

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Elizabeth watched for a while as Ed picked at the automail. He had definitely changed in the months that he had been gone, and she wondered if there had been anything during that time that hadn't ended up so badly. After a while, Ed sighed and turned to Elizabeth.

"So what all happened here?" he asked. "I'm guessing you're still looking for Jack, right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes."

"Have you gotten any closer?"

"Somewhat. We have a way to get to where he is, at least."

"That's good…" Ed muttered, but it didn't sound very sincere.

"You don't seem very happy about being here," Elizabeth stated.

Ed shook his head. "To be honest, I don't want to be here at all. There's so much I need to do back home, and… I guess I've just been gone for so long that I don't really feel like I belong with you guys."

Elizabeth heard footsteps on the top of the stairs, and looked up to see Tia Dalma walking toward them. The crazy lady sat down at the table and faced Ed with a serious, yet playful, look in her eyes.

"You have arrived here from the sea of blood that Father created. Envy is with you as well." She paused. "Why is he with you?"

Ed frowned. "He-"

"He is waiting for the opportunity to bring you home. It is too bad, he will not get a chance."

"What?"

"You will not return to your home from here. You will return to the place from which you came. That is how it works."

Ed looked down at his clothes, which were still covered in blood, although not as much as before. "I see. What about Ling?"

"Ling? I do not know."

Elizabeth looked curiously at Ed. "Ling? Who is he?"

"He's a friend of mine," Ed replied. "He was in that place…"

"If he is here we will find him," Tia Dalma interrupted. "But now you must rest. You have been awake for too long."

Ed nodded. "Yeah." Ed stood up, and Elizabeth automatically stood up as well to show him where he could sleep. Ed was out almost as soon as he lay down. Elizabeth watched him for a moment before going back up to the deck.

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Ed was quiet for most of the next day. He spent most of his time looking out at the ocean, and since there wasn't much he could do in terms of working on the ship, nobody bothered him except for when he was in someone's way, and even then, he didn't say a word.

After a while, Mr. Gibbs got curious and decided to figure out what was eating at Ed so badly. He walked up to the young alchemist and took a swig of rum before turning to face him.

"The sea isn't going to look much different unless we come across land, you know."

Ed continued staring. "I know."

"What are you looking at?"

Ed pointed down to the whale that was swimming alongside the ship. "That's my worst enemy right there."

Gibbs looked at the whale for a moment before remembering that it was Envy. "The captain seems to trust him."

"That's because he's an idiot," Ed muttered under his breath, but Gibbs still heard it.

"And what's so foolish about bringing him along, Edward? He may yet help us."

"You don't know what he's done."

At this point, Mr. Gibbs gave up and let Will take over. The older pirate wandered off, drinking his rum, and Will stood next to Ed instead.

"What has he done to you?" Will asked.

Ed shook his head. "Too much."

"There are people here who have done wicked deeds, but we don't condemn each other."

"You don't know anything about him," Ed repeated bluntly. "He's a bastard and I hate him."

Will was rather taken aback by Ed's attitude. Usually he gave a specific reason for why he didn't like something, but this time…

"What has he done to you?" Will asked gently, placing a hand on Ed's shoulder.

Ed jerked away and glared at Will, his eyes filled with fury. "You want to know what he's done? Here's a start. He tried to kill me. He shot an innocent child. He… he's a bastard, Will. That's all you need to know."

"I've killed plenty of people myself, Ed. What makes Envy so different?" Will was getting a little frustrated with Ed at this point, so he didn't quite expect what Ed did next.

"You know what makes him different?" Ed snapped, his face a sheer mask of fury. "He _enjoys_ killing people. He was ecstatic when he told me about that child he shot. And guess what that led to. That one death, that the military wrote off as an accident." Will was about to interrupt, but Ed didn't give him a chance. "That one incident led to an entire civil war. Thousands of people died. They were all killed off by the military. That includes Mustang and Hawkeye. Winry's…" The tears in Ed's eyes finally rolled down his face, and he was practically shouting. "Winry's parents were murdered by one of the people they had saved! That bastard's responsible for the Ishbalan Civil War, and thanks to him, people like Scar feel the need to go around killing innocent Amestrians for the sake of revenge! He… everything that's gone wrong in our lives, with the exception of maybe two things, is because of that bastard! There's no way in hell I could ever accept him as an ally!" Ed stopped suddenly after his last word and clutched his chest. There was an awkward silence for about a minute, that involved everyone within hearing range, before Will dared to speak up. "Who's Scar?" he asked as Ed finally recovered.

Ed blinked a few times. Evidently he had forgotten that he wasn't in his world anymore. "He's… an Ishbalan. He was injured, and the people who saved his life, Winry's parents… he killed them. After that, he started going after state alchemists, so I've had a few run-ins with him…" Ed unconsciously touched his forehead as he said this, but he quickly dropped his hand and went back to staring at where Envy was.

"That's how your head was injured," Will stated.

"Yep."

"Does she know?"

Ed looked up at Will in confusion. "Who, Winry?"

Will nodded.

Ed turned back to the ocean. "She knows. She was there."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about. Envy's the one who should be apologizing, but he _loves_ making people's lives miserable."

"But… Winry, how did she take it?"

Ed turned his head to the right, completely hiding his face from Will. "She hated it. She wanted to kill him, and…" Ed wiped his face off with a sleeve. "I couldn't let her. She's not that kind of person, and I didn't want to see her get hurt."

It was at that point in time that Will noticed the gun tucked into the back of Ed's pants. "You have a gun."

Ed turned to face Will, grabbed the gun with his automail hand, pulled it out, and looked at it. "It's Hawkeye's. She's letting me borrow it."

"Have you fired it?"

Ed shook his head. "Not at a person. I don't know if I ever could do that, either…"

"You might have to," Will replied.

"I don't want to. I don't even want to be here."

"But isn't it better than where you were?"

Ed frowned. "Practically anywhere is better than that place. I mean, it's not like I'm not happy to see you, it's just that I have things to do back home, and Al… I thought I lost him once, and it was the worst feeling I've ever known. I don't want him to have to go through that."

"Don't you want to help Jack?" Will asked.

"I do," Ed replied before lowering his voice. "But what Envy's planning… no, what his boss or whatever is planning, might end up destroying the entire country, and everyone in it. I have to do _something_ to stop it…"

Will nodded his understanding, even though he didn't quite get how someone could destroy _everyone_ in such a large area, unless… "With alchemy?"

Ed nodded again. "Why else would Envy want me alive?"

Will easily heard the bitterness in Ed's voice, and he waited as Ed grew silent and went back to watching Envy. Just then, Barbossa walked up to the two. Ed turned to face him with a scowl on his face, but he was silent.

"There's a storm coming," Barbossa stated, looking directly at Ed. "Which means it's time for you to go below deck and stay there until it passes."

Ed gave a vague nod before walking directly to the stairway and disappearing below deck. Barbossa walked off to some other part of the ship, but not before muttering, more to himself than to anyone else, "That boy is clueless."

"He is right," Tia Dalma said from right next to Will. Needless to say, Will was somewhat startled, but he hid his reaction fairly well as the crazy lady continued. "There is a story that that boy does not know, and he may never know it, because he must find out on his own."

"A story?"

Crazy lady nodded. "Once there was a man who had immortality. He fell in love wit a beautiful woman, and they had two sons, but de man was unhappy. He didn't wish to watch his family grow old and die while he lived on. And so he left them. He left to find a way to rid himself of his immortality. He went back after ten years to visit his family, only to return to nothing. His wife had died many years before, and his eldest child regarded him with anger and resentment. His house had been burned to de ground."

Will frowned. "That's why his father left?"

Tia Dalma nodded. "Edward is more like his father than he realizes."

"Have you met him?"

"Twice. He is not an ordinary human."

"What about Ed?"

"That is a question I cannot answer right now."

"What about his brother?"

"It is the same. They are not from this world, so I cannot say."

At that moment, Will decided to go talk to Ed again. He excused himself and went to the cabin where Ed was supposed to wait out the storm in, but when he got down there, Ed was asleep. He was lying on his right side, his back to the room, and his shirt and shoe were sitting on the floor. Will looked back at Ed. The alchemist had definitely grown since he had seen him last. He wasn't much taller, but he had grown in other ways. He had changed so much that Will was having troubles believing that this was the same boy he had met at Port Royal.

"What are you doing?" Ed asked, startling Will out of his reverie.

"I was just… You've changed."

"So have you."

But then again… "You haven't grown much, though."

"YES I HA- ow…" Ed clutched his chest and lay on his back, glaring at Will the entire time. Will held back a laugh. Sure enough, Ed's most defining characteristics hadn't changed a bit.

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My chapter breaks are loud and annoying, just like I would be if I said everything that popped into my head. So yeah, I still don't like the quality of this fic, but it's almost bearable now.

And because I promised a few people certain things, this fic will officially go away from the movie's plot quite a ways in some parts. I promise it'll still be funny and semi-angsty and Jackashi-tastic, though.


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